Che Democratic 
Movement in Asia 



T3?LER- DENNETT 




Class __ . 

Book 

Copyright^? 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSE. 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 




NOWHERE IS THE DEMOCRATIC 
DRIFT IN ASIA MORE MARKED THAN 
IN THE FACES OF ITS NEW SCHOOL 
GIRLS. 



THE DEMOCRATIC 
MOVEMENT IN ASIA 



TYLER DENNETT 




ASSOCIATION PRESS 

Nbw York: 347 Madison Avenub 
1918 






Copyright, 1918, by The Asia Publishing Co. 

Copyright, 1918, by 

The International Committee of 

Young Men's Christian Associations 



DEC -2 \m 

JL$0884.8 

""H P [ 



FOREWORD 

The following chapters, now brought together 
with many revisions and with the addition of 
much new material, were first printed in Asia. 
The theme was developed in a lecture which the 
author was invited to deliver before the members 
of the American Asiatic Association on the sub- 
ject of Foreign Missions and World-Wide Democ- 
racy. The fact that the material thus collected 
and presented was acceptable to Asia and to the 
American Asiatic Association is striking evidence 
of the interest and favor which the subject has 
won for itself. It is only within recent years that 
a secular magazine and an association which has 
no relation whatever to religious propaganda would 
have found the facts with reference to foreign mis- 
sions worthy of so much consideration. It must 
also be evident that the point of view of the au- 
thor is detached and impartial, rather than either 
partisan or critical. 

The facts were gathered in the course of two 
extensive tours through Japan, China, the Philip- 
pines, Malaysia, and India. They are the ob- 
servations of a tourist who merely took the 
trouble to turn aside from the usual routes of. 
travel to make investigations at first hand. A 
large place has been given to the narration of 
incidents and stories, because each bit of evidence 

[v] 



FOREWORD 

is cumulative rather than conclusive. It has 
been the repeated impact of these situations 
described here at length which has produced the 
convictions out of which these chapters are 
written. 

The photographs from which the book is illus- 
trated were, with two exceptions, taken by the 
author. 

A complete list of acknowledgments is im- 
possible. The author is grateful to a host of 
friendly people throughout the countries visited 
for their never-failing hospitality and their sym- 
pathetic understanding of the purposes of the 
quest. It is not unfair to make special acknowl- 
edgment of the inestimable assistance received 
from Galen M. Fisher, of Tokyo, and George A. 
Fitch, of Shanghai, in the way of introductions 
to their distinguished friends among the Japanese 
and the Chinese peoples. Special thanks are 
also due to the editors of Asia, at whose invita- 
tion the chapters were first prepared and with 
whose enthusiastic cooperation they were com- 
pleted. 



[vi] 



CONTENTS 

Chapter Page 

Foreword v 

I. Asia in the Family of Nations ... 1 

II. The United States in Asia 13 

III. What Asia Thinks of Missionaries . 41 

IV. Builders of Civilization 59 

V. The Missionary Schoolmaster ... 87 

VI. The Missionary Doctor 109 

VII. The Emancipation of Women .... 137 

VIII. Remaking the Oriental Social 

Order 161 

IX. Nationalism and Church Unity in 

Asia 187 

X. The Business Side of Foreign Mis- 
sions 207 

XI. Foreign Missions and World-Wide 

Democracy 229 



ASIA IN THE FAMILY OF NATIONS 



CHAPTER I 
ASIA IN THE FAMILY OF NATIONS 

Perhaps half the causes of the European War 
were not in Europe at all, but in Asia. Certainly 
half the consequences will be there. At the end of 
another half century this fact will be more evident 
than now. Likewise, it will then be clear that 
when the United States became a world power it 
also became an Oriental power. It is quite likely 
that, great as are the present contributions of 
America to Europe, even greater will be her con- 
tributions to the cause of freedom and justice in 
the East. 

The United States actually became an Oriental 
power when it came into possession of the Philip- 
pines, although we did not then fully realize it. 
The American occupation and administration of 
the Islands, in turn, prepared the way directly for 
the leadership which President Wilson was able to 
assume when he made the first declaration of 
Allied war aims and pronounced for the principles 
of self-determination. If the American policy in 
the Philippines and elsewhere in the Orient had 
been other than it was, such a declaration would 
have had little influence in the councils of Allied 
policy. 

Coincident with and even antedating the po- 
[3] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

litical entrance of the United States into Asia was 
the steady growth of American influence in China. 
The Open Door policy and the remission of the 
Boxer Indemnity were merely two incidents in a 
long series of friendly and disinterested acts which 
won the confidence and affectionate regard of the 
Chinese. 

Meanwhile the American traders and the Amer- 
ican missionaries were extending their influence. 
They were relatively few in numbers, yet potent 
in leadership throughout the entire Eastern Hemi- 
sphere. Neither of these unofficial representatives 
of the American people were the unrepresentative 
types which they were sometimes reported to have 
been. Barring real exceptions, the American busi- 
ness man in the Orient has been a clean-cut, clean- 
living, clean-dealing agent. He has won respect. 
The missionary also has carried with him a typi- 
cal American spirit, touched with a persuasive 
idealism. He seldom made enemies, for it was his 
primary purpose to make friends, and every friend 
he made was also a friend for the nation which 
had sent him out there to relieve suffering, teach 
the illiterate, and enlighten the superstitious. 

The combined effect of these diverse influences 
has been to elevate the United States to an unique 
place in the estimation of the Asiatic races. China 
became a republic. The first republican leaders 
had been bred in the American missionary school, 
even though the teacher had been quite uncon- 
scious of the role which he was preparing his 
pupils to play. India demanded Home Rule. 

[4] 



1 




THERE IS HARDLY A VILLAGE IN 
ALL CHINA TO WHICH THE NEWS- 
PAPER DOES NOT SOME TIME PEN- 
ETRATE. THESE MEN ARE READING 
FROM A PAPER PUBLISHED BY ONE 
OF THE POLITICAL PARTIES AND 
POSTED FREELY ON BULLETIN 
BOARDS. 



ASIA IN THE FAMILY OF NATIONS 

Why? There were many influences at work, but 
one must not overlook a most important one: 
India had been observing the American policy in 
the Philippines. Other nations and races also 
were stirring when the European War came to 
claim their attention and to teach them its les- 
sons. Now they are asking: How does the war 
for the defense of the rights of weak nations 
affect us who are politically the weakest of all? 

Democracy is not merely a catchword of the 
War; it has become the watchword of the world. 
The War has accentuated the ideal and acceler- 
ated its growth; but, long before the War began, 
the ideal had thrust down its roots in many soils 
where republican institutions were plants of ex- 
otic growth. 

Asia is moving toward democracy in interna- 
tional affairs and also toward republican ideals of 
government at home. Many of these ideals have 
been borrowed directly from America or from 
Americans. India has, of course, drawn impar- 
tially from the great stream of political idealism 
which runs through our common English and 
American literature and history, but the Filipino 
and the Chinese each has learned directly from 
the United States. 

In the face of this democratic drift of the Orient 
we must recognize that the Asiatic races are not 
at all prepared for many of the privileges of self- 
determination which they are demanding and 
which they have in part received. Those who 
follow current Chinese history are almost in de- 

[5] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

spair for the future of the new republic. England 
has committed herself to a policy in India which 
will leave a huge unfinished task long after the 
map of Europe has been redrawn on lines of 
justice and stability. The United States is not 
yet able to withdraw from the Philippines, and 
none is so rash as to prophesy a date when with- 
drawal can be accomplished without the defeat of 
the very principles to which America has dedi- 
cated herself in these far-off lands. 

The key to an understanding of the Oriental 
problem as it is and as it is likely to remain for 
generations is the comprehension of the fact that 
Asia itself is a unit, which does not lend itself to 
division into the Philippine, the Chinese, the Jap- 
anese, the Siberian, or the Indian problems. Fur- 
thermore, Europe and America are as much a 
part of that unity as are China and India. This 
unity cannot be dissolved until the problem itself 
is solved. 

All the nations and races of Asia are now 
standing on end like a circle of dominoes. If 
any one of them is knocked over or disturbed 
in any way, the resulting commotion is imme- 
diately communicated to all the others. The 
Japanese policy in China or Siberia, for example, 
is not to be considered apart from Home Rule 
in India or Filipino independence, any more 
than it can be separated from the future of 
Malaysia or Russia. But it is even more im- 
portant for us to realize that this Oriental Question 
includes more than the Orient. 

[6] 




A NEW SPIRIT OF LIBERTY HAS 
8EIZED UPON* INDIA, AS THE FREE 
STRIDE OF THESE GIRLS AT THE 
ISABELLA THOBURN COLLEGE TESTI- 
FIES. 



ASIA IN THE FAMILY OF NATIONS 

If we think of Asia as a circle we find elbowing 
each other on its circumference the United 
States, England, Holland, France, and Russia, 
as well as Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Malaysia, 
and India. I omit China from the list of nations 
on the circumference because she is really the 
very center of the whole problem. The position 
of China at present is so unique that one is war- 
ranted in saying that as China goes in the next 
few decades so goes the Orient, and perhaps 
the world, for the next few centuries. 

Notice the line-up on this circle: Russia at 
present a passive quantity; Japan still an im- 
perialistic power; France with a not very 
creditable colonial policy and a very discreditable 
diplomatic policy in South China; Holland with 
none too fine a score for humanity and justice 
in Java; the United States embarked upon a 
policy of administration and control which has 
already extended to the Filipinos a greater de- 
gree of autonomy than was ever before given 
to a subject race; Great Britain now introducing 
revolutionary measures in India which put her 
in line with the American policy in the Philip- 
pines. Then notice that the political conditions 
in large parts of the rich Malay Peninsula are 
as yet almost entirely unmade, that Siam is as 
plastic as wax, that China is as fragile as a cracked 
lacquer bowl. 

Hitherto the Oriental question has been ap- 
proached by Americans chiefly from three dis- 
tinctly different angles. The statesman, who 

m 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

has sometimes been merely an international 
politician, has sought to steer a course which 
would keep the United States from being involved 
in vexatious international disputes. The banker 
and business man has surveyed Asia as a field 
for exploitation, where risks were extra hazardous 
and where other nations were already well en- 
trenched. The foreign missionary, and those who 
sent him to his task, defined his transcendent 
purpose as one of redemption of souls, in which 
the Hindu, Mohammedan, Buddhist, Confucian- 
ist, or Shintoist would be converted to Chris- 
tianity. Meanwhile, the great majority of 
citizens had no interest whatever in the prosecu- 
tion of any one of these three purposes. 

Many factors must combine or cooperate to 
lift the races of the Orient to the point where 
they can meet, on democratic terms, the powers 
of the West at the council tables of the world. 
The purpose of this book does not include more 
than the enumeration of some of these factors, 
nor is it the desire to claim more importance 
for any single one than the facts warrant. It 
must be perfectly clear, however, that the tra- 
ditional attitude of the European toward the 
Asiatic races must give way before new policies 
and methods, in keeping with the ideals for which 
the war in Europe is being fought. 

The United States has now become a world 
power and has assumed a place of leadership 
among the nations which will involve more and 
more concern for the political welfare of Asia. 

[8] 




WHEN THE AMERICANS CAME TO 
THE PHILIPPINES THEY INTRODUCED 
A NEW SPIRIT AS WELL AS A NEW 
THEORY OF GOVERNMENT. BASE- 
BALL DISPLACED COCK FIGHTING AS 
THE NATIONAL SPORT. ALMOST 

EVERY ALLEY IN MANILA NOW HAS 
ITS BASEBALL TEAM. 



ASIA IN THE FAMILY OF NATIONS 

This new relation to the backward races will 
in turn demand that the United States shall 
assume its proportionate responsibility, which 
must be very large, for such economic develop- 
ment of these peoples as will be necessary to 
fit them for international partnership in pro- 
duction, trade, and politics. Meanwhile the 
missionary must view his task from the wider 
angle, and see himself as a national representative 
and as an international agent in preparing na- 
tions and races for the responsibilities and priv- 
ileges of self-determination. 

Hitherto the business man has seen in Asia 
merely a field for exploitation; the missionary 
has been primarily impelled by the urge to preach 
the Gospel to all nations. These two motives 
can no longer be considered exclusive of or 
opposed to each other. Both business man and 
missionary are really engaged in a common task 
to develop the latent resources — physical, intel- 
lectual, and moral — of backward peoples, without 
robbing them of any thing or any quality essen- 
tial to the preservation of their independent 
national life. The American people must replace 
the not uncommon distrust of the American 
business man who does business abroad with 
confidence that he has not lost his integrity 
merely because he has chosen to be in business 
where his neighbors are unable to observe his 
actions. They must see in him a man who is 
rendering an important international service. 
Likewise, we must recognize that, in addition 

[9] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

to the religious imperative which has projected 
foreign missions into the non-Christian world for 
more than a century, there is now the inter- 
national imperative which the immediacy of the 
Oriental problem has revealed, although it would 
be regrettable if the missionary were to lose his 
religious idealism in proportion as he becomes 
conscious of the immense economic, social, and 
even political consequences of his work. 

The missionary, as an interpreter, is extremely 
valuable. He is constantly explaining and illus- 
trating the American people to his constituents. 
To most of his neighbors he is first an American, 
and only secondarily a missionary. His letters 
about his work, addressed to the constituency 
at home which supports him, are an invaluable 
medium for transforming parochial Americans 
into internationally-minded citizens. When he 
opens a school he succeeds to the honorable 
estate of teacher among peoples who have always 
given their greatest reverence to wise men and 
sages. His hospital creates infinite good will. 
His superior education and his altruistic purposes 
immediately elevate him to a place of leadership 
in matters of social reform and not unfrequently 
of government. He creates new markets and 
new industries of immense direct and indirect 
value to international trade. 

Meanwhile, his entire work becomes an under- 
pinning for the new civilization which alone will 
admit the backward races to democratic fellow- 
ship with the Western nations. The missionary's 

[10] 



ASIA IN THE FAMILY OF NATIONS 

influence is all the greater because actually he 
has no relation whatever to government, politics, 
or commerce, and is controlled only by motives 
which admit no other purpose than to elevate 
the people for their own good, by emancipating 
them from their spiritual bondage. 

It is plain, then, that merely an enlightened 
self-interest on the part of the United States 
is quite sufficient to justify the presence of the 
American missionary among these Asiatic races. 



en] 



THE UNITED STATES IN ASIA 



CHAPTER II 
THE UNITED STATES IN ASIA 

To a degree not at all realized by most Amer- 
icans the United States has already become an 
Oriental power, or, if one prefers, a Western 
power with tremendous commercial, political, and 
moral leadership in Asia. 

Not long ago the Ford general sales-manager 
dropped into Bombay and found the trade in 
a panic. The police commissioner had recently 
purchased a new motor car, British made, one 
of those fine machines which England used to 
delight to make before the War. It had seven- 
teen coats of varnish and an engine which would 
run ten years without developing a knock — you 
know the kind. The commissioner ran his car 
around for a few days and came quickly to the 
conclusion that he was quite an authority on 
automobiles. His next conviction, deduced from 
an admiration of his own machine, was that 
the American flivver was entirely unsafe. Forth- 
with he drew up a recommendation that the 
Fords be deprived of their licenses as taxis. 

The sales-manager called on the commissioner. 
Yes, the official mind was made up. The car 
had been examined; it was unsafe. But, being 
as good a sport as are most of his countrymen, 

[15] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

he agreed to hold up the recommendation until 
the following Saturday, when the sales-manager 
promised to give a public demonstration of his 
far-famed contrivance. On the appointed day, 
by official permission, a platform four feet high 
was erected on the Maidan. It was announced, 
in ways not novel to American publicity men, 
that there would be a public test and demon- 
stration of the American car. Needless to say, 
the crowd was there, including the police com- 
missioner. 

The American drove his car out upon the 
field and up on to the platform. He jumped out 
and tinkered with it a moment for dramatic 
effect. Then he backed off, loaded up with a 
crowd of curiosity-eaten Marathis, threw in his 
clutch, gave the engine some more gas, drove 
up on the platform, off the other side, landed 
in good order, and rolled proudly across the 
field through an aisle of dumb-stricken Indians. 
There was never any renewal of the proposal 
to bar this or any other American car from the 
streets. Such methods of doing business out- 
picturesque even the picturesque Orient. They 
do not add greatly to the popularity of the 
American among the other foreigners, but they 
do appeal tremendously to the natives. 

"America must be the sun and moon to the 
Orient," said one of India's greatest industrial 
and financial leaders to me not long ago. It is 
the kind of statement which I should expect to 
hear in China. One might possibly gather up 

[16] 



THE UNITED STATES IN ASIA 

such a remark in Manila or in Singapore, but 
when one hears it in Bombay, it becomes ex- 
tremely surprising and significant. 

The United States has entered upon, without 
seeking, although not without some preparation, 
an active leadership in the affairs of Asia. This 
leadership, while active only in the sense that 
the Asiatic races have accepted it even though 
it was not directly offered to them, is none the 
less very real. It is more political and moral 
than commercial, although American business in- 
terests are rapidly extending themselves. Its 
beginnings date back to the time when the 
United States followed up the occupation of the 
Philippines with shiploads of school-teachers and 
the promise of ultimate independence. A new 
and hitherto unknown political and colonial theory 
was thereby introduced into the Orient and its 
influence has been most pervasive. I have seen 
a letter written by a most distinguished Indian 
to the prince of a well-known native state sug- 
gesting, in response to a request for advice, that 
the prince create a post of Councilor, "such as 
Mr. Lansing held before he became Secretary of 
State. This person should, under the present 
circumstances, be a foreigner, preferably an 
American." Ex-Governor Forbes of the Philip- 
pines was suggested as a possibility for the place. 
"It would be the duty of such a person to com- 
pare the system of a given state with that pre- 
vailing in the Philippines or Hawaii. He would 
see the enormous work for good done by the 

[ n ] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

Americans and would ask what prevents a rep- 
etition of that work in India." 

"I am a nationalist in sympathy," said a dis- 
tinguished gentleman of Bombay, "although I 
do not join in the slander that England impover- 
ishes India. There is an old statement that 
our country is being drained of her wealth. Let 
us assume that seventy-five millions of dollars 
goes to England in trade. This is hardly one 
dollar per family, per year. Account is not 
taken of the fact that if the English civilians who 
come to India were cattle they would be valued 
at enough per head, as imports, to offset the 
other account. In return for the Home Office 
charges which go for administration and pen- 
sions, India is receiving services which are im- 
measurably great. 

"Nevertheless, when I visited the Philippine 
Islands I found that the people are far more 
prosperous than the Indians. America has taken 
a new spirit to the Islands which the conservative 
Briton has not brought here. The Filipinos have 
had revealed to them new ways of developing 
their resources. When I asked Americans in 
Manila to explain why the Islands have pros- 
pered so much, they were unable to do so. I 
believe the cause to be the American spirit." 

"The chief cause of irritation in India," said 
Sir Stanley Reed, editor of the Times of India 
(Bombay), "has been that England has been so 
slow in granting simple and urgent requests. 
There is so much red tape, so much delay, so 

[18] 




THE AMERICAN AUTOMOBILE HAS 
BEEN WELL INTRODUCED INTO INDIA 
WHERE IT IS VERY POPULAR BE- 
CAUSE OF ITS CHEAPNESS. ONE 
CANNOT BE MANY HOURS ON ANY 
GOOD ROAD WITHOUT SEEING AT 
LEAST ONE AMERICAN CAR. 



THE UNITED STATES IN ASIA 

much ponderous machinery to move, that when 
India does receive what she asks for, the grant has 
been so long delayed that the favor seems to have 
been given grudgingly. Thus England loses the 
good will which she might have gained/' Many 
people confirmed this statement. "Our great 
complaint," said B. J. Padshah, financial advisor 
to the great Tata group of industries, "is that 
England has been so conservative; so unwilling 
to adopt new ideas." Then he added, with a 
twinkle in his eye, "It seems funny, doesn't it, 
that the Indian should criticize the Englishman 
for being conservative." 

In China the United States is regarded not 
only as a powerful friend, but also as an ideal. 

In 1861 President Lincoln appointed Anson 
Burlingame of Massachusetts to represent the 
United States in Peking. He immediately pro- 
posed to his diplomatic colleagues "a policy of 
cooperation, an effort to substitute fair diplo- 
matic action in China for force." Professor 
Willis Fletcher Johnson, in his "History of 
American Diplomacy," records the story of how 
six years later Burlingame was released from his 
post, presented by the Emperor with a com- 
mission engrossed on yellow silk, and sent out 
with almost unlimited powers to "attend to 
every question arising between China and the 
western nations." He made a treaty between 
the United States and China and then began a 
tour of the European capitals in the interests 
of his new client, dying suddenly in Petrograd. 

[19] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

From that period until now, Chinese respect 
for and confidence in the United States has 
grown, with but slight set-backs, until now it 
is enough to make the most thoughtless American 
hold up his head a little higher, and yet tread 
softly. 

I was in China during those weeks of debate 
as to whether she should send home the German 
minister and enter the War. The Chinese were 
bewildered in the midst of the diplomatic tangles. 
They could not understand what it was all 
about. German influences were very active. 
Japan did not favor the move, at least not in 
the earlier weeks of the discussion. China had 
some old scores against nearly all of the Allies. 
On the whole, their longer record in China was 
less inspiring of confidence than even that of 
Germany. China could not see why she ought 
to enter the War and yet the United States recom- 
mended it. That was sufficient to turn the tide. 

"We know," said very many Chinese to me, 
in many different parts of the country, "that 
America has no sinister motive." China would 
not have entered the War were it not for her 
confidence in the United States. 

The Chinese like American candor, even though 
they prefer for themselves more devious ways 
of address. China is still smiling over the re- 
mark of an American engineer made in the 
Russian Chancery at Peking. This gentleman 
had been sent out to build railways which are 
being financed by an American banking corpora- 

[20] 



THE UNITED STATES IN ASIA 

tion. He is one of our real native products, the 
kind which comes from Minnesota, never went 
to school after he was eight years old, and learned 
his profession by swinging a pick, although one 
would never guess it to talk with him. He had 
been having trouble in finding routes which had 
not already been preempted by some one else. 
One day he went over to the Legation Quarter 
to learn how he stood with reference to Russian 
concessions. 

"This," said the attache, "is a map of China 
colored to show the various spheres of influence." 
The engineer studied it a moment. Shantung and 
Southern Manchuria had one color for Japan, 
Northern Manchuria and Mongolia had another 
for Russia, the Yangtse Valley was tinted for 
England, and liberal sections of the South ap- 
peared to be mortgaged to France. The map 
looked like a Joseph's coat. The Chinese like 
the direct and even abrupt way in which the 
American brushed aside the niceties of diplo- 
matic language and exclaimed, "Then where in 

is China?" The question was, and is and 

will be, until the peace conference settles it, a 
pertinent one. 

Not long ago I happened to be at a semi- 
publie dinner in Shanghai, at which Dr. P. W. 
Kuo of the Normal Teachers' College of Nanking 
made an address. He had just returned from a 
government mission to the Philippines, where he 
had inspected the school system. Turning to 
the Americans present, he said with great earnest- 

[21] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

ness: "You Americans have every reason to be 
proud of your country's work in the Philippines." 
He also expressed the greatest sympathy with 
the Filipino desire for complete independence. 

Each year a steady stream of Indemnity stu- 
dents returns to China. There are usually more 
than sixteen hundred Chinese students in school 
in the United States. They will all return raw, 
inexperienced, not very useful at first, but fairly 
saturated with American social and political 
ideals. 

The contribution of the United States to Asia 
has been a gift of idealism. This idealism has 
most recently found expression in President Wil- 
son's definition of our war aims, but it had 
already been fanned into a flame in the East by 
the breeziness of Uncle Sam, and its sparks were 
scattered all over Asia. These sparks found 
plenty of tinder for the fire on ground already 
prepared by the penetration of the trader and 
the missionary, and by grievances of the people 
arising out of the arrogance and rapacity of the 
various Powers. Incidentally, the United States 
has backed up its idealism in the Philippines by 
the investment of a great deal of money and 
devotion. It has also recorded many times its 
intention of retiring from the Orient as soon as 
the Filipinos demonstrate their ability to go 
their way unaided. But the success of the Amer- 
ican experiment in the Islands is entirely con- 
tingent upon whether it can eventually be re- 
peated elsewhere in Asia. If the republican 

[22] 



THE UNITED STATES IN ASIA 

experiment fails, for example, in China, either 
because of aggression from without or through 
internal weakness, no part of Asia can be safe 
for democracy. If China were to become the 
feed, fuel, and mineral box of any imperialistic 
or autocratic power, the democratic drift of the 
Orient would be blocked. 

If the Oriental problem did not include a move- 
ment toward democracy it would be much simpler. 
The Philippines have most nearly arrived at 
their destination, but Great Britain is initiating 
measures in India which will throw heavier 
responsibilities for self-government upon the In- 
dians than they have ever had before. London 
seems disposed to make changes much faster 
than the foreigners in India believe wise. One 
must also remember that during the war hundreds 
of thousands of Indian soldiers and Chinese 
coolies have been transported abroad and given 
a world view which is likely to put them even 
more than before on the side of seK-determina- 
tion for their national affairs. 

Asia, outside of Japan, is already committed 
to republican experiments which can be success- 
ful only under the most favorable conditions. 
The Philippines and India have been governed 
by experts. We must be prepared to see a lower- 
ing of efficiency as public affairs are passed over 
to republican control. Such is the price of de- 
mocracy. A mobilizing of the forces of the 
world to make democracy even respectable may 
yet be necessary. 

[23] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

The plain facts of the case are that Asia, 
speaking broadly, is not at all ready for the 
exercise of the rights which she is demanding 
and has already in part received. China is from 
ninety-two to ninety-seven per cent illiterate; 
India, averaging the ten per cent literacy of the 
men with one per cent for the women, is in no 
better condition. The desire for Home Rule is 
now reaching down into the villages of India, but 
the ryot, in the same breath in which he assures 
one that he wants it, will say, "But what is Home 
Rule, anyway?" In his mind it is associated only 
with the improvement of his economic condition. 
It may mean that he can have a pukka house of 
brick, instead of his mud hut. The forty million 
outcastes fear that they will have their law- 
suits tried before a Brahmin judge, and are al- 
ready protesting against the proposed new order. 
The present maladministration in China is 
increasing, not decreasing, the burdens of the 
people. 

The following incident, told to me by a mis- 
sionary in one of the remote cities of China, 
gives one several angles of vision on the present 
internal economy of the new republic. In a 
certain city the magistrate's yamen was burned, 
no cause for the fire being evident. The next 
day the magistrate called together all the wealthy 
men of the city and said, 

"You know who burned my yamen last night.'' 

The men protested that they did not know. 

"Well, at any rate, it seems peculiar to me 
[24] 



THE UNITED STATES IN ASIA 

that my yamen was the only building to burn. 
It looks suspicious. I believe that you men are 
in secret league with the bandits and that you 
told them to burn me out." 

Again the men protested, but the magistrate 
continued : 

"Here are plans and specifications for a new 
yamen. I shall expect you to see that it is built 
immediately. Otherwise I shall know that you 
are in league with the brigands and shall report 
you as such to the military governor of the 
province." 

The new yamen was erected forthwith. 

A few weeks later the missionary was asked 
by the military governor to go up into the moun- 
tains and arrange a compromise with the brigands, 
by which the latter would agree to lay down 
their arms and return to peaceful life. The mil- 
itary authorities have been utterly unable to 
cope with the situation, so that for several years 
anarchy had prevailed. The missionary exhorted 
the robbers to forsake their evil ways, whereupon 
they replied: 

"But we are not the worst brigands. We 
steal and hold for ransom; that is true, but we 
do not eat government rice while we are doing it." 

"What do you mean?" asked the missionary, 
mystified. Then they recalled to his mind the 
magistrate who had recouped his loss by intimi- 
dating the rich men. They mentioned half a 
dozen other stories of a similar kind. 

"If he steals and loots the people," suggested 
[25] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

the brigands, "why cannot we do the same? Go 
tell the governor that we will lay down our arms 
when he provides us with honest magistrates." 

The missionary reported the interview to the 
governor, confirming the truth of the assertion 
that the magistrates of that region were the 
most accomplished brigands with whom he would 
have to deal. "Well," replied the governor, con- 
fidentially, "you tell the brigands to go down and 
kill that magistrate and loot his yamen, and I 
will overlook the matter entirely." 

While this story illustrates extreme conditions, 
I know at least a dozen more, revealing similar 
chaos in widely scattered districts. 

If China can be guaranteed an open sea and 
smooth water in which to practice the new art 
of republican navigation, and can have competent 
pilots, she will probably yet achieve a stable 
government. She will need help, political and 
economic as well as educational, but there is no 
evidence that the Chinese, individually, are a 
degenerate race. If one takes a Chinese, a Jap- 
anese, a Malay, and an Indian and sets them 
down in the Malay States, which are rich beyond 
the dreams of avarice, and underpopulated, the 
Chinese is almost certain to rise superior to all 
the others. The Chinese element in the Philip- 
pines is so virile and so successful that one may 
even be able to put in a fair defense for the 
American policy of Chinese exclusion in the 
Islands, on the ground that the Filipino must 
be protected. The Dutch in Java have been 

[26] 



THE UNITED STATES IN ASIA 

forced to establish a discriminating headtax on 
Chinese immigrants, because they are so much 
superior to the Malays that the latter go under 
in the competition. 

The Asiatic question is greatly complicated 
by the presence of a formidable color-conscious- 
ness and a growing racial pride. This pride, 
which first crystallized when Japan defeated 
Russia, has been greatly increased during the 
years of the European war. The nations and 
races of the Orient are one in their desire to be 
delivered from European meddling and super- 
vision. 

"We are wondering," they say, "how the 
principle of the rights of weak nations as applied 
to Belgium is to be applied to us." 

Perhaps the color question lies at the bottom 
of the entire Oriental problem. The Oriental 
feels that he has been discriminated against be- 
cause his skin is tinted. He is irritated at the 
snobbery of the white race. Consequently he 
likes the Jones Bill which opened so many doors 
to his dusky cousins. It is the color question 
which gives Japan what hold she has on Asia. 

Most Europeans in the Orient have a very 
simple philosophy on this subject. As an Amer- 
ican doctor, loaned to the British Government 
for some special medical research in the Federated 
Malay States, expressed it to me, "I believe that 
the white race is bound to rule the world." If 
pressed a little farther he would probably have 
admitted that he referred to that part of the 

[27] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

white race which is Anglo-Saxon. When I 
quoted this reply to an Indian gentleman with 
whom I happened to be discussing the subject, 
he sighed and remarked: 

"I hope there will never have to be a test of 
this claim. The Oriental is not by nature a 
cruel person, although many people say he is, 
but if the world were ever to line up on the color 
question and fight it out, there would be trouble 
indeed. " 

One may see to how great an extent the United 
States is idealized by the following remark, 
made by an Indian who has been around the 
world many times: 

"The race and color-prejudice out here are 
bad. Of course every one knows that the English- 
man is caste-ridden. But in America it is dif- 
ferent. When I was there Mr. Wilson invited 
me to come to see him." 

An Indian Judge of the High Court, from 
whom I was seeking to draw out a statement 
as to the extent of India's loyalty to the Govern- 
ment during the War, after assuring me on that 
point, remarked speculatively: 

"India sees no European master whom she 
would be willing to have in exchange for England, 
but if it were a choice between England and Japan 
I am not so sure what India might say. She 
might conclude that it would be better to have 
a purely Oriental administration. She might 
say, 'Japan has taken her religion from us; we 
would understand each other.' " 

[28] 




JAPAN IS NOW AT THE PARTING OF 
THE WAYS, CHOOSING BETWEEN PO- 
LITICAL IMPERIALISM AND ECONOMIC 
EXPANSION. THE WAR HAS SET 
JAPAN FORWARD INDUSTRIALLY BY 
MANY DECADES. THESE GIRLS ARE 
AT WORK IN A SILK MILL, THE EN- 
TIRE PRODUCT OF WHICH IS SOLD 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 



THE UNITED STATES IN ASIA 

I faithfully followed up this question wherever 
possible and am bound to conclude that this 
judge was not voicing the feelings of many of 
his countrymen. Indeed there is almost as much 
race prejudice in India, where the Japanese and 
the Indian meet, as there is between the tinted 
and the white races the world over. "These 
Japanese whom one sees by the hundreds in 
Bombay are such dirty people," remarked a 
Mohammedan lady to me in disgust. As a matter 
of fact, the Japanese are the most cleanly folk 
in the world. And yet there is an active prop- 
aganda being carried on, at least in Shanghai, 
to draw Indian, Chinese, and Japanese leaders 
together on a color platform. One of the deep 
questions which the peace conference will have 
to settle, if not in theory, at least in fact, is 
whether there are in justice any priority rights 
among the shades of the human spectrum. 

The stubbornness with which many Chinese 
opposed the entrance of China into "the white 
man's quarrel" witnesses to the existence of a 
similar desire to shake off the European influences 
in China. The growth of this sentiment tends 
to throw China into the arms of Japan, which 
has already so skilfully and so repeatedly de- 
feated or outmaneuvered the Europeans. If Japan 
had not so botched her diplomacy, this move- 
ment of "Asia for the Asiatics" would now be 
much farther advanced than it is. Even so, I 
have heard not a few enlightened and influential 
Chinese say: 

[29] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

"China would be far better off if Japan were 
to take the country over; we have done so badly 
in our attempt at republican government that 
we do not deserve to govern ourselves." 

There is a deep vein of pessimism in the Chinese 
nature which accounts for some of this despair, 
but the fact remains that China is quite incapable 
of steering her own junk, except in the open sea 
and in very smooth water. She is in the grip 
of a militarist party, the leaders of which are 
commonly known in China as "well-dressed 
coolies." These military leaders are quite gen- 
erally pro-Japanese. The Chinese system of 
government provides that each province shall 
have two governors of coordinate powers, one 
civil and one military. The military governor 
has in his army the only force in the province 
which can be quickly mobilized to support an 
opinion. Consequently the military governor al- 
ways has the upper hand. He can control every 
election, suppress any publication, and determine 
every policy. Until recently China has assigned 
the soldier to the lowest seat in her scale of 
social order. The soldiers have been drawn al- 
most exclusively from the lower classes. The 
result is that, so far as matters governmental are 
concerned, the social order of China has been 
inverted and the soldier, who was the lowest, 
and still is among the most ignorant, finds him- 
self now the highest. If the Chinese Republic 
possesses any considerable group of able leaders, 
then most of them are in hiding. 

[30] 



THE UNITED STATES IN ASIA 

The English-speaking Chinese are, in the 
main, opposed to Japan; the mass is inarticulate. 
The Chinese seem to be unanimous only on two 
points: they do not desire a restoration of the 
monarchy, and they will not willingly accept a 
return to the old days of "spheres of influence" 
and European meddling. Beyond this China is, 
for the present, practically the unknown quantity, 
or the variable, in the Asiatic equation. 

It is very difficult to discuss the relation of 
the Japanese to the Oriental problem and at the 
same time to escape the charge that one has 
abandoned a judicial frame of mind. In spite 
of its centuries of history, the Japanese Empire 
of today is in a period of adolescence. It is 
filled with conflicting emotions, which will not 
be quickly unified and which prevent any fixed 
classification in international affairs such as both 
friends and enemies of the nation demand. It 
is even difficult to classify Japan as a part of the 
Orient, although she claims to be its leader and 
mouthpiece. She is one with China, the Philip- 
pines, and India in her Oriental pride and color- 
consciousness, and has already fought many 
battles for the independence of the yellow races. 
On the other hand, Japanese history has not 
been enriched by the struggles of the masses to 
wrest the privileges of self-government from their 
lords and masters. At present Japan stands quite 
apart from the republican struggles and aspira- 
tions of China, the Philippines, and India. It is 
not even evident that she approves of them. 

[31] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

Singularly, in Japan one finds little of this 
spirit of popular discontent which is so pro- 
foundly stirring her neighbors. For years one 
has been warned of the imminence of a revolution. 
Twice within three years have I visited the 
Empire, expecting to hear or overhear the mut- 
terings of a dissatisfied common people. Each 
time have I been disappointed. Only recently 
I sat at dinner with two distinguished Japanese 
editors, one of whom is a member of Parliament. 
The fourth guest was an American who has lived 
many years in the country and understands 
unusually well both men and measures. 

"How goes it with democracy in Japan?" I 
asked. 

"I believe that democracy is making some 
progress," replied the member of Parliament, 
after a few moments of sober reflection, "and 
yet I am unable to square my impression with 
the fact that there is absolutely no demand for 
the extension of the electorate." The other 
editor confirmed the statement. My American 
friend, himself surprised, added, "These men 
are close to the people; they know what they 
are talking about." 

I did find some few individuals in the univer- 
sity circles who were disposed to be critical and 
even to say things which I am not permitted to 
quote; yet it is a notable fact that even many 
graduates who have the privilege of the ballot 
do not use it. At any rate, it is safe to say that 
there is no such political unrest in Japan as 

[32] 



THE UNITED STATES IN ASIA 

there is elsewhere in the Orient. The leaven 
may be at work, but a survey of Japanese history 
shows that the Japanese people do not go in 
for revolutions of the explosive kind. 

The recent rice riots were obviously economic, 
not political, in their origin. Whether they will 
have any permanent political influence is a matter 
which only time will reveal. Up to the present 
time no political reform in Japan has been forced 
or induced by any uprising of the common people. 
Each political concession, and there have been 
not a few of them, has been handed down from 
above freely but paternally by a very small 
group of the aristocracy. The mass of the Jap- 
anese people has never yet given any evidence 
that it is politically-minded. 

Japan, judged by her internal economy and 
by her administration of Korea, is quite out of 
step with the world movement toward democracy 
and self-determination. There could not possibly 
be a greater contrast in the purposes of colonial 
policies than that between Korea and the Philip- 
pines. Even the name "Korea" has been re- 
moved from the postal guide. The "mailed 
fist," "the rattling saber" were gentleness and 
honesty itself compared with the methods by 
which Japan forced her demands on China a 
few years ago. One cannot overlook the fact 
that although Japan is joining in this war for 
the safety of democracy, she herself is not one 
of democracy's defenders. 

The internal economy of Japan is not a proper 
[33] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

matter of concern to Americans, or to any nation, 
except as it has its bearing on international 
affairs, and more particularly on the Oriental 
problem. There are at present within the Empire 
some very influential and significant groups of 
people, who are seeking to divert Japan from a 
course of political imperialism to one of economic 
expansion. The thorough defeat of Prussianism 
will doubtless exercise a profound influence. It 
is well not to frame more than tentative judg- 
ments of Japan for the next decade; but for the 
present it is not evident that the exaltation of 
Japan to a place of accepted political leadership 
of Asia would not paralyze the present repub- 
lican movements in China, the Philippines, and 
India. 

Business men may say that China's weakness 
is fundamentally commercial and industrial; the 
statesman may say that it arises out of a con- 
fusion of political theories; the railway builder 
may find the cause in the wretched system or 
lack of system of communication; the teacher 
concludes that the trouble is illiteracy; the phy- 
sician that it is low standards of health. But 
any broad survey of present Chinese conditions 
must reveal very clearly that none of the reforms 
proposed will carry very far, except where they 
are accompanied by the most radical moral and 
spiritual changes in the people. The ethics of 
Confucius, with its pronounced individualistic 
accent, does not promote the sense of social 
responsibility which is essential to the develop- 

[34] 




ASIA REPRESENTS A VAST RESER- 
VOIR OF LABOR WHICH AS YET HAS 
BEEN UTILIZED VERY INEFFECTU- 
ALLY. UNFORTUNATELY, AS POWER 
MACHINERY AND MODERN FACTORIES 
INCREASE, THE WOMEN AND THE 
CHILDREN ARE AMONG THE FIRST 
TO BE DRAWN INTO THE NEW IN- 
DUSTRIAL SYSTEM. 



THE UNITED STATES IN ASIA 

ment and sustenance of public spirit and pa- 
triotism. In practice it has proved even unequal 
to supplying the personal virtues necessary for 
the carrying on of the simplest cooperative 
political, commercial, or educational enterprises. 

Likewise, the most serious obstacle to the 
establishment of Home Rule in India is not eco- 
nomic or educational, but moral and religious. 
It is frequently pointed out that India lacks a 
religious unity which makes for peace and con- 
cord. The Hindu and the Mohammedan repre- 
sent two irreconcilable religious loyalties which 
are frequently in conflict. It is equally true that 
neither of these religions has in the past demon- 
strated its fitness to produce the ethical qualities 
of honesty, justice, liberty, and social respon- 
sibility which are essential to the maintenance of 
free government. In a similar way the greatest 
handicap to the development of democracy in 
the Philippines is in the traditions and ideals 
of a religious system under which democracy 
has never been able to flourish. 

The four sides to the Oriental problem are 
respectively political, economic, moral, and re- 
ligious, and the United States is already in- 
timately related to each one of them. 

The political relation of the United States is 
such, both for the immediate present and for 
the more remote future, that there is no possi- 
bility of taking the backward track. It will 
not be possible to retire from the Philippines 
until the principles of government and of liberty 

[35] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

which have been taken to the Islands are well 
established and fully protected, not only in the 
Philippines, but also among all the backward 
races of Asia. Meanwhile, every political, social, 
or moral condition in the Eastern hemisphere 
favorable or unfavorable to the success of the 
Philippine experiment is a matter of immediate 
concern to Americans. 

The thorough defeat of Germany disposes of 
the specter of a Pan-Asia Movement for the 
present. This defeat may easily be also the 
end of imperialism in Japan, if the end of the 
War marks, not the beginning of a new period 
of selfish exploitation of Asia by the Western 
nations, but a new age of international coopera- 
tion for the welfare of every race. On the other 
hand, if the new arrangements do not provide 
that the race-consciousness of the Oriental peoples 
be joined with such favorable conditions for self- 
development as will satisfy their new aspirations, 
it is only a matter of time when the Indians, 
the Chinese, the Filipinos, the Japanese, and 
their many cousins will pool their issues in an 
Oriental imperialism which will make the present 
World War look like a skirmish. 

For a decade the American investments on the 
other side of the Pacific have been increasing 
by leaps and bounds. Immediately following the 
close of the War there will be a new contest for 
the markets of the East. Vast commercial and 
industrial powers are already straining at the 
leash, waiting for the end of the War, when they 

[36] 



THE UNITED STATES IN ASIA 

will be free to undertake new enterprises on a 
scale hitherto unknown. The unnumbered tons of 
shipping which will be in the possession of the 
United States will greatly facilitate and promote 
these new plans. The commercial relations be- 
tween the United States and Asia will be the 
more encouraged because of the fact that the 
economic development of those vast areas will 
be most essential to the creation of political 
stability. 

Likewise the United States will be quite un- 
able, and unwilling, to lay aside the moral leader- 
ship which has come to her by reason of the War. 
The backward races of Asia, assured by President 
Wilson's definition of war aims, confirmed as 
they have been by Lloyd George and by the 
proposals for India, confidently expect to receive 
new privileges and opportunities. These ideals, as 
expressed by President Wilson, bid fair pro- 
foundly to modify the established colonial policies 
of every European nation. Within a few months 
after the entrance of the United States into the 
War, the French Governor General of Algeria, 
Tunisia, and Oran issued a manifesto to the 
colonies of North Africa, announcing that France 
would initiate new policies for her colonies similar 
to those which the Americans have established 
in the Philippines. An extension of the electorate 
in North Africa has already been begun. 

For the intelligent discussion of any phase of 
the Oriental question it is necessary to have 
before one a broad survey of the entire field. 

[37] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

The one great question before the American 
people in relation to the Orient is how the new 
era in Asia may be introduced with the greatest 
prospects of success. The obstacles which these 
nations have to overcome are political, economic, 
and social. It is too late to consider the rather 
academic question of whether these peoples have 
in them the inherent qualities out of which 
democracies are built. Lack of communications, 
of common language, of education, and of re- 
ligious faith which is in harmony with republican 
ideals, is in itself sufficient to create what now 
appear as such handicaps to effective and col- 
lective action. The Oriental peoples at least 
have the right to the freest opportunity to over- 
come and correct their deficiencies. 

The question of religion, therefore, is very 
properly a subject for consideration. One must 
recognize that Asia's most fundamental weak- 
nesses are social and ethical and spiritual. 
Changes in the political and economic order 
must be accompanied by the development of 
new ideals. In this latter task the work of the 
missionary assumes a greater and more immediate 
importance than has yet been realized. The 
statesman, the colonial administrator, the com- 
mercial promoter, and the missionary must work 
hand in hand. 

Such a partnership would not be desirable or 
defensible if the future were to resolve itself into 
another period of mad scrambling for the political 
or commercial exploitation of backward peoples. 

[ 38 ] 



THE UNITED STATES IN ASIA 

The missionary can have no part in such a pro- 
gram. There must be no more using of mission- 
aries for political propaganda as Germany em- 
ployed them throughout Asia, particularly in 
India and China. We have the faith to believe, 
however, that the world is entering upon a new 
phase of colonial and of international policy, in 
which weak peoples are not to be exploited but 
are to be helped to self-government. 

The Western nations are about to place in the 
hands of the Oriental races the vast resources of 
civilization — machines, factories, methods of or- 
ganization, forms of government. It is of the 
utmost importance that when these forces are 
carried to Asia there shall go with them the 
idealism which has made their accumulation 
possible and their uses human. To give one 
without the other is to invite calamity both for 
the East and for the West. 

The following pages do not attempt to give 
the missionary a place of exclusive preeminence 
in the establishment of the new age; they seek 
merely to relate his work to the other forces 
which must also be operative in the creation of 
that new world. The same facts which clothe 
with a new dignity the work of American states- 
men, bankers, and business men in the East give 
also a new importance to the American mission- 
ary school, hospital, and chapel. 



[39] 



WHAT ASIA THINKS OF MISSIONARIES 



CHAPTER ni 
WHAT ASIA THINKS OF MISSIONARIES 

"The missionaries are a bad lot." One can 
hardly set foot on a trans-Pacific steamer without 
hearing this verdict. "They come out here to 
live in luxury and to make money; they never 
make a sincere convert." Such reports come in 
freely from the tourist, who rapidly gathers con- 
victions from what he hears on the steamer and 
in the hotels, and also from highly respected 
people who have had long residence in the Orient. 

During the last few years I have spent nearly 
half my time, as tourist and writer, traveling 
about in "foreign missionary countries" and on 
the steamers between them and home. These 
criticisms have always interested me. When I 
first heard them I had few positive convictions 
on the subject, but I always attempted, wherever 
possible, to make a personal investigation of 
every charge. Furthermore, I have almost never 
failed, when talking with either a foreigner or a 
native, whatever our main topic of conversation 
may have been, to come around to this question: 
What do you think of the missionaries? What 
follows is not an apology; it is merely a record 
of these investigations. 

I have found that there are two ways for the 
tourist to see the Orient: One is to follow the 

[43] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

trail of the good hotels, carry a few consular 
introductions and as many cards as possible to 
business men, and to supplement these with the 
eagerly proffered services of rikisha coolies, taxi 
drivers, and hotel guides. The other way is to 
go to the missionary. 

The native guide, either professional or volun- 
teer, has one big idea and very few small ones. 
As directly, or adroitly, as possible, he wishes to 
get his party to some place where the tourist 
will spend some money, upon which the guide 
can return later to collect a commission. He has 
a miscellaneous list of sights for which he has a 
few words of broken English explanation, but 
his purpose is to get one past these things as 
quickly as possible and head for the silk store 
or the curio shop. If his party consists only of 
men and he is left to select his own destination, 
he is almost certain to arrive at the segregated 
district. The only country in the entire Orient 
to which this last statement does not apply is 
India. It is unfortunately true that a great 
many tourists never get very far outside of routes 
marked out by these zealous and often self- 
appointed guides. 

Introductions to consuls and other government 
officials and to European residents are valuable. 
It is regrettable that tourists do not use them 
more. Not only do these people lead an exiled 
life, which makes a visit from a countryman 
with the latest news from home very welcome, 
but they are also able to answer many questions 

[44] 




IF YOU WERE TO ASK SENATOR 
SOROKU EBARA, OF THE JAPANESE 
HOUSE OF PEERS, WHAT HE THINK8 
OF MISSIONARIES, HE WOULD REPLY 
THAT HE BELIEVES IN THEM ENOUGH 
SO THAT HE BECAME A CHRISTIAN 
MORE THAN THIRTY YEARS AGO. 



WHAT ASIA THINKS OF MISSIONARIES 

and offer much advice of great value. When 
one moves off the beaten paths of travel, the 
open-handed hospitality of every European home 
is one of the delights of Oriental travel. How- 
ever, one may utilize to the limit the services 
of both the guide and the European and yet see 
very little of the real Orient. One can see temples 
until the very suggestion of another temple brings 
one to the verge of collapse. One can buy silk 
and curios until even all the newly acquired 
trunks are too full to close. One can take number- 
less bad snap-shots of street scenes, and can 
study countless coolies in their natural habitat, 
but the actual Orient is something quite aside 
from all this. Like some other places, Asia is 
chiefly a state of mind or a point of view. One 
will have to search elsewhere than in streets, 
shops, or temples to find it. 

Some years ago in Tokyo I met Carl Crow. 
I was about to take my first plunge into China, 
and was then carrying in my grip Crow's guide- 
book to the country. "What suggestions have 
you for the trip?" I asked. "How can I see 
China best?" 

"Go to the missionaries," replied Crow. Then 
he modestly added that his guide book was largely 
a compilation of information which he had col- 
lected from the missionaries. "They are the 
only people," he explained, "who really know the 
country." 

I have had frequent occasion to test this asser- 
tion and I feel impelled to record that it is pro- 

[45] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

foundly true. The temples and the bazaars have 
their value in introducing the traveler to the 
country, but they chiefly give him a glimpse 
of what the past has been. The people who are 
the present and who are determining the future 
cannot be found there. In order to see the Orient 
that is, the tourist will have to make very gener- 
ous use of the missionary. And yet very few 
tourists see him at all. 

The missionary is often the one person avail- 
able who understands both the language of the 
tourist and the language of the country, but more 
important is the fact that often he alone under- 
stands why the traveler asks the questions he 
does. He knows the background of the ques- 
tioner's mind and is at the same time intimately 
familiar with the life about which the question 
is asked. The English-speaking native may under- 
stand the words, but unless he belongs to a very 
limited class of those who have been educated 
abroad he is at loss to understand why anyone 
would ask such a fool question anyhow. 

The consular agent may know the language — 
he must before he can secure promotion — but 
his relation to the native is largely official. He 
may be able to answer questions, but his intro- 
ductions to citizens of the country often have 
an official coloring which is an embarrassment to 
free conversation. Even the consul who is de- 
voting his time enthusiastically to study does 
not begin to be in such intimate contact with 
the commonplace daily life of the people as is 

[46] 



WHAT ASIA THINKS OF MISSIONARIES 

the missionary. The business man whom one may 
meet has been sent to the Orient to take care 
of business. Usually he does not learn the lan- 
guage, or at least does not learn it well. His 
contacts with the native life are largely second- 
hand, through his comprador or some native 
assistant, and are almost exclusively commercial. 
While I have met some business men, particularly 
in India, who stand in exceptionally close relation 
to the native, I have usually found it necessary 
to allow for a certain amount of color prejudice 
in appraising the judgment of the average business 
man on any subject connected with the Orient, 
outside those included in his commercial relations. 

Of course, I do not wish to imply that the 
missionary alone is to be relied upon for trust- 
worthy opinions, but merely to record my own 
observation that the missionary, because of his 
unofficial and intimate association with all sorts 
and conditions of people, and because of his 
knowledge of the language, usually has the best 
balanced judgments. Naturally he is trying to 
see the people at their best and his relation to 
them is friendly and even affectionate. He is 
often frankly partisan. When he errs at all it 
is usually on the side of optimism. On the other 
hand, the unmitigated snobbery of the white 
race is such that most other foreigners in Asia 
have a tendency to err on the side of pessimism 
in their judgments both of the natives and of 
local conditions. 

So much by way of explanation as to how I 
[47] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

first came to seek out the missionary and to 
know him. My motive was quite utilitarian. I 
came more and more to find that he was the most 
useful guide. In the back of my mind when 
I met him were the current criticisms. I have 
always found him willing to meet them frankly 
when they were stated. More recently I have 
lived in his home for days and weeks at a time, 
in places where there were no hotel accommo- 
dations within hundreds of miles. I have been in 
intimate association with him and his family 
and he has freely introduced me to his friends. 
Now as to the criticisms. 

Do they ever make sincere converts? The 
name "rice Christians'' has spread throughout 
Asia. It implies that the convert is held by 
inducements of rice and of other economic, social, 
and even political advantages. I have been told 
again and again very soberly and seriously, by 
Europeans who have lived for ten, twenty, and 
thirty years in the Orient, that the missionaries 
never made a sincere convert. 

One would indeed be very courageous, as well 
as something else, to suggest in Japan to Prof. 
Inazo Nitobe of the Imperial University, Senator I 
Soroku Ebara of the House of Peers, Dr. Ukita, 
editor of the Taiyo, Takutaro Sakai of the Mitsui 
Bank, Mr. Kobayashi, the tooth-powder man, 
Mr. Obara, the millionaire silk manufacturer of 
Kurashiki, Mr. Hatano of the Ayabe Silk Fil- 
atures, Madame Yajima and Miss Tsuda, both 
of whom were recently decorated by the Emperor, 

[48] 







MADAME YAJIMA TREASURES A 
DECORATION FROM THE EMPIRE FOR 
HER DISTINGUISHED SERVICES TO 
THE EMPIRE. SHE IS THE PRESI- 
DENT OF THE JAPANESE WOMAN'S 
CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION AND 
A LEADER IN ALL, REFORMS FOR 
WOMEN. 



WHAT ASIA THINKS OF MISSIONARIES 

Madame Hiroaka, daughter of the Mitsui family 
and one of the richest women in Japan, that they 
were "rice Christians." Madame Hiroaka told 
me that during the last three years she has, under 
the direction of the Union Evangelistic Campaign, 
stumped the Empire from Hokkaido to Shi- 
monoseki, speaking in practically every large 
town in church, hall, or theater, wherever she 
could find shelter, for Christianity. Mr. Ko- 
bayashi, Mr. Obara, and Mr. Hatano — and I 
might mention many other Christian manufac- 
turers — are setting standards in industrial better- 
ment and in welfare work for their employes far 
in advance of public sentiment, and equal in 
extent and thoroughness to the best there was 
of the kind in the United States not many 
years ago. 

There has never been a time since the Japan 
Parliament was organized when there have not 
been more than a dozen Christians in the member- 
ship. The Japanese are as sensitive as Americans 
to detect insincerity among Christians. The very 
fact that these people whom I have mentioned 
are who they are and what they are contributes 
an important answer to the question: What does 
Japan think of its Christians? The strength of 
Christianity in Japan is all the more remarkable 
when one remembers that there are still many 
people living who remember when the old edict 
was still in force: "So long as the sun shall warm 
the earth, let them all know that the King of 
Spain himself, or the Christian God, or the Great 

[49] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

God of All, if he violates this command, shall 
pay for it with his head." 

As one passes over to China one encounters 
a similar list of imposing names. There are the 
Nieh Brothers, cotton manufacturers of Shanghai; 
Wong Kwong, President of the Yangtse Engineer- 
ing Works at Hankow; many of the officers of 
the Hanyang Iron Works; Dr. W. W. Yen, 
recently minister to Germany, and his brother 
who is building the government railway from 
Hankow to Canton; C. T. Wong, until revolution 
left him without office, Vice-President of the 
Senate; C. C. Wong, who has served as Auditor 
General for the Ministry of Posts and Com- 
munications; and Yung Tao, the millionaire 
philanthropist of Peking. I selected these names 
from a much longer list of representative Chinese 
Christians who talked freely of their Christian 
convictions. 

The recent president of the Kwangtung Pro- 
vincial Assembly was the Reverend K. Y. Shia, 
who was called to that office from the pastorate 
of the Second Congregational Church of Honolulu. 

Over in India, where I was repeatedly assured 
that all Christians are "rice Christians," I met 
Sir Rajah Harnam Singh, a charming Hindu 
gentleman, whose adherence to his Christian 
views cost him a kingdom. He assured me that 
he had no regrets. Two years ago he served as 
moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly 
for India. 

The most recent statistics show that there 
[50] 



WHAT ASIA THINKS OF MISSIONARIES 

are about 7,000,000 Christian converts, Catholic 
and Protestant, in Asia. They are divided 
according to the following geographical divisions: 

Japan, Korea, and Formosa. . . 360,000 

China 2,350,000 

British Malaysia and Dutch 

East Indies 186,000 

India, Ceylon, and Burma 4,237,000 

It would be misleading to give the impression 
that this vast body is made up exclusively of 
such as those whose names I have mentioned. 
I have cited these people, almost all of whom 
I have talked with, merely to show that Chris- 
tianity has so commended itself to the Orient 
by the results which it has achieved, that such 
men and women as these whom I have named 
have become converts. 

Here is another way of going at the subject. 
How much do these seven million Christians pay 
toward the support of the churches to which 
they belong? It must be remembered that a 
gold dollar represents in terms of day labor 
anywhere from five to twenty times as much in 
the Orient as in America. The records show that 
out of the approximately forty millions gold 
which is annually spent on foreign missions, more 
than one sixth is collected on the various fields. 
This represents, roughly measured by wages paid 
to skilled labor, and in sacrifice, as much as fifty 
million dollars contributed by Christians in the 
United States. 

[51] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

I have never been content to rest on the mis- 
sionary's estimate of his own work. I have been 
astonished to meet among his converts men and 
women of such distinction, but I have gone even 
further than that to find out what Asia thinks 
of missionaries. I took the question to Sir James 
Meston of Lucknow, Lieutenant Governor of the 
United Provinces, and recently made a member 
of the first Imperial Council in London. He is 
an old Indian Civil Service man, who has worked 
his way up through the ranks to his present 
position. The position of Americans in India 
at the time I called was delicate. President 
Wilson's first peace note was being widely dis- 
cussed, and generally taken as not very friendly. 
A Scotchman, very sympathetic to Americans, 
told me about that time that if public sentiment 
against Americans increased in the next six 
months as it had in the last six, it was not improb- 
able that all of them would have to leave India. 
When this fact is taken into consideration, Sir 
James' statement becomes doubly impressive. 

He said: "Of course there is a great difference 
of opinion about mission work. Some scoff at 
it; some value it for its purpose to convert the 
native to Christianity; others appreciate it for 
its humanitarian services. The Government 
takes a neutral attitude, but it does enormously 
value the assistance rendered by the missionaries 
to good government. The missions have helped 
in education and have done a great deal for the 
depressed classes which the Government could 

[52] 



WHAT ASIA THINKS OF MISSIONARIES 

not do and which the Indian is unwilling to 
do." 

"What about the American missionaries in 
particular?" I asked. 

"Of course the Government must preserve a 
strict impartiality/' replied Sir James, "but I 
will say this: I have never been embarrassed 
by any act of an American missionary." 

Never shall I forget a frank conversation which 
I had in his palace with His Highness, the Gaek- 
war of Baroda. He told me of some of the meas- 
ures which he had already introduced for the 
betterment of his subjects, and of the difficulties 
which he had encountered. His admiration for 
things American is so unqualified as to be almost 
naive, but I think I was most of all impressed 
when he said, "I am thinking of calling together 
the missionaries and asking them to tell me their 
views on how we can improve the quality of the 
native priesthood. Then I want to call the 
priests together and say to them, 'Look at the 
missionaries. See the sacrifices they are making 
to help our people. You ought to go out and do 
the same kind of work.' " His Highness has 
already established a professorship of comparative 
religion in the Baroda College for the express 
purpose of introducing the native religious leaders 
to other religions, with a view to improving the 
quality of their own. 

The Times of India, published in Bombay, is 
one of the two or three outstanding newspapers 
of the land. Sir Stanley Reed, the editor, per- 

[53] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

haps more than any other European newspaper 
man in India, enjoys the confidence of the Indians 
themselves. I asked him, "What do you think 
of the missionaries?" 

"One cannot estimate the success of the mis- 
sions," he replied, "by the number of converts 
or by the statistical reports. I am not an active 
member of any church, but I will say this: If 
missions could not show one single convert, they 
would still be justified ten thousand fold by the 
moral influence which they exert on the country. 
I have fifty or sixty Indian friends here in Bombay, 
unusual men, leaders of exceptional ability, re- 
formers. One and all, they have been power- 
fully influenced by Christianity, although some 
of them will not admit it, and others do not 
know whence the influence has come." 

I might easily append similar statements from 
men of equal standing, both foreigners and na- 
tives, both Christians and non-Christians, but 
the reiteration of the same general opinion would 
be tiresome. Perhaps the most emphatic state- 
ment of any comes from Dr. G. E. Morrison, 
formerly correspondent to the London Times in 
Peking, and more recently special foreign adviser 
to the Chinese President. He said to me, "It 
is easy to criticize the missionaries, to say humor- 
ous things and to see the ridiculous, but their 
work is good. Whenever I hear anyone abusing 
missionaries and saying that their work is value- 
less, I set him down as a fool. He simply does 
not know what he is talking about. One cannot 

[54] 




BABON SAKATANI, ONE OF THE 
LEADEBS AMONG THE YOUNGER JAP- 
I STATESMEN, SATS THAT THE 
MISSIONARIES HAVE RENDERED A 
GREAT SERVICE TO JAPAN, PROMOT- 
ING MANY NEEDED REFORMS AND 
DEVELOPING A 3EN3E OF INTER- 
NATIONAL BBOTHEBHOOD. 



WHAT ASIA THINKS OF MISSIONARIES 

travel a week in any direction even in the re- 
motest corners of the Republic and not run on 
to a mission. These places are sources of good 
and only of good. They are the greatest forces 
for the uplift of this country." 

"What has Christianity brought to Japan?" 
I asked Baron Y. Sakatani, seeking not for com- 
pliments and kind words, but for his cold estimate. 
He is not a Christian, but he represents the very 
best which Japan has produced. 

"Christianity has brought a widening of ideas, 
the feelings of internationalism and brotherhood," 
he replied. 

"Would not commerce have brought this?" 

"Yes, but in a different way. Commerce is 
self-seeking. Christianity has been unselfish and 
has stood aside from personal profit. In our 
long history, we have experienced several times 
the importation of foreign ideas. Confucianism 
came, then Buddhism, then Christianity. The 
old faiths were Japanized. Whenever new ideas 
come, we are not swallowed up by them, but 
we digest them. The Buddhism in Japan is far 
better and purer than that in India. We take 
the best and we shall be glad to take the best 
out of Christianity. At the present time Chris- 
tianity is making its most notable progress among 
the better educated people." 

How then does it happen that so many tourists 
and business men come back from the Orient 
not knowing these facts? Not long ago I heard 
an engineer who had been out there eighteen 

[55] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

years say to a circle of information-hungry tour- 
ists on shipboard that the missionaries are only 
trouble-makers. In proof of his point he as- 
serted that they have made so much trouble 
in the last few years in Korea that the Govern- 
ment has had to drive them all out of the country. 
His standing in his profession, his assurance in 
making this statement, and his eighteen years 
in the Orient made him an authority in the 
estimation of his hearers. Doubtless if it had 
gone unchallenged a dozen Americans would have 
been released in America to spread such a state- 
ment from California to Maine. As a matter 
of fact there are today in Korea almost five hun- 
dred missionaries, an increase of fifty-seven per 
cent in six years. 

Most tourists never see a missionary unless by 
chance they meet him on the steamer. The 
missionary does not frequent the hotels. He is 
almost never at the club. He does not attend 
the race-meeting. Usually he is off in the in- 
terior where no tourist ever goes. There are few 
facilities for bringing the missionary and the 
tourist together. Each of them finds each day 
exceptionally full. 

The missionary himself is in part to blame 
that his work is so little known. When Judge 
Gary was in the Orient a few years ago, the man 
who made out his itinerary and personally accom- 
panied him, himself the son of a missionary, went 
to some of the missionaries in one city and sug- 
gested that Judge Gary would be there at a 

[56] 



WHAT ASIA THINKS OF MISSIONARIES 

certain time and that it might be possible for 
them to show him some of their work. They 
were so preoccupied in what they were doing, 
so busy with regular engagements, that they 
failed to see the importance of the suggestion. 
The result was that, although Judge Gary was 
given every possible facility to see other phases 
of Oriental life and development, he had prac- 
tically no chance for first-hand study of the 
foreign missionary business in the Orient, which 
involves the work of a foreign staff of 13,737 
people and an annual expenditure of approx- 
imately $20,000,000. Dr. Simon Flexner, who 
did see the missionaries when he was in China 
making investigations for the China Medical 
Board of the Rockefeller Foundation, made the 
statement that there is no organization in the 
world, either philanthropic or commercial, which 
is getting as large returns out of the money it 
spends as the various boards of foreign missions. 

The chief cause of the failure of the tourist 
to meet the missionary is that the former is so 
caught and enthralled by the novelty and pic- 
turesqueness of the country that his attention is 
immediately distracted from what are, after all, 
the biggest subjects of interest. He goes to the 
Orient to see "something different," and he 
carries with him more or less of the Caucasian 
assumption that all that is not of Occidental 
origin, while interesting, is essentially inferior. 
Thus prejudiced and misled, he does not even 
attempt to get to the people who can speak for 

[57] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

their country and who are leading it. If he 
went to them they would lead him to the mis- 
sionary. On the other hand if he went first to 
the missionary he would find that he, more than 
anyone else, is in intimate association with the 
native who has the big ideas and who has the 
vision of a new age for Asia. 



[58] 



BUILDERS OF CIVILIZATION 



CHAPTER IV 
BUILDERS OF CIVILIZATION 

What sort of folks are the missionary and his 
wife? 

I called on one some years ago while he was 
home on furlough, to ask for some exciting 
stories, having heard that he had once escaped 
on his bicycle from a tiger down near the borders 
of Siam and the Federated Malay States. He 
was a very modest gentleman, quite at a loss to 
understand or sympathize with my quest. He 
would rather tell me about his hospital. At 
length I made clear to him that for the moment 
I was in more urgent need of information about 
the human side of missionary work. He replied: 

"You remind me of a story about Hoover of 
Borneo. The last time he was in this country 
he was being pursued by a group of ladies at a 
missionary meeting. They said to him, 'Now, 
Mr. Hoover, tell us a story. Of course we are 
interested in your rice mills, your Chinese immi- 
gration work, and your association with the 
White Rajah of Borneo, but we know that you 
come from the land of the head-hunters. Surely 
you can tell some exciting tales about being 
chased by the Dyaks!' 

'Very well, then/ said Mr. Hoover, T will 
tell you of my greatest adventure with the head- 

[61] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

hunters. One day I was out in the jungle with 
four of them. We were on a lonely trail in the 
dense forest. There were two boys in front of 
me and two boys behind me; no white men 
within hundreds of miles. Just when we reached 
the darkest spot in the jungle, the boy behind 
me drew out a long knife and stabbed me through 
the heart. The head-hunters buried me there 
in the jungle under a tree, and, do you know, it 
makes tears come to my eyes whenever I think 
of that poor little grave/ " 

If the ladies had only known it, they might 
have drawn out from Mr. Hoover an equally 
exciting, though less fantastic, tale about an 
effort to make a couple of carabao work in front 
of a new-fangled American mowing-machine. An 
enthusiastic friend of modern agriculture pro- 
jected the idea that the rich lands of Borneo 
would blossom like the wheat-fields of Kansas 
if only they could be cultivated with modern 
agricultural implements. Straightway he ordered 
shipped to Sarawak an assortment of labor-saving 
instruments, in which was included a mowing- 
machine. Some of the implements were very 
useful and eagerly adopted by the Chinese 
colonists, but the mower presented difficulties. 

The carabao is usually a mild-mannered do- 
mestic beast who likes to possess his soul in 
peace and quiet. He wades leisurely through 
the paddy fields, attached to a crooked stick 
which serves as a plow and is steered by a rope 
attached to a ring in his nose. The farmer loves 

[62] 



BUILDERS OF CIVILIZATION 

him as a member of his own family, for he is 
the only draught animal yet discovered which 
can be induced to live and work in many parts 
of the tropics. Nothing in a carabao's previous 
experience fits him to be hitched up in front of 
a modern mowing-machine. The missionaries 
down in Borneo are willing to make an affidavit 
to the foregoing statement, for they made the 
experiment with amazing results. A pair of 
carabao, attached to the new American mower, 
were turned loose in a ten-acre lot w T hich was 
ripe for the harvest. The poor beasts bent them- 
selves to the yoke and got the contraption under 
way. 

It must have seemed to them as though they 
had been suddenly cut off in the rear by a battalion 
of Browning machine guns. The faster they 
traveled, the worse the racket. The carabao 
charged down the field like the immortal Light 
Brigade and made for the swamp where they 
could lie down and get under cover. The Chinese 
farmers disentangled the machine, lifted it out 
of the mud, and tried hauling it themselves for 
a while, but at length surrendered to tradition 
and cut the balance of the crop according to the 
methods of their fathers. 

One reason why the missionary does not always 
tell his most interesting story is that he does not 
dare. He is the guest of the government and 
of the people with whom he works. After a few 
bitter experiences with uninformed or unscru- 
pulous reporters or head-line writers, he con- 

[63] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

eludes that the only safe course is to keep his 
mouth shut tight. What he says while home on 
furlough is reported directly back to his field 
of labors. His statements may offend, or be 
twisted so that they will offend either the govern- 
ment which has permitted him to work there, 
or the people whose confidence and friendship 
he must have if his work is to continue after he 
returns. 

The experience of a young Indian who came 
to this country a few years ago to complete his 
education will illustrate the need of extreme 
caution on the part of the missionary in treating 
of subjects which lie outside his own special 
field. The story is merely illustrative of general 
conditions; the man himself was not a mission- 
ary. He supported himself during the summers 
by giving Chautauqua lectures on India, and 
proved a most acceptable speaker. On his 
return to his own country he accepted a position 
as teacher in a state college in one of the native 
princedoms. After he had been at work a few 
weeks there came a letter to the British Resident 
from Delhi, instructing him to inquire of the au- 
thorities why they had employed a returned stu- 
dent who was known to have uttered seditious sen- 
timents while in the United States. The young 
man denied the charge and his answer was re- 
ported back to the capital at Delhi. Shortly 
afterwards the Resident received a sheaf of 
clippings about the Chautauqua lectures in which 
both the reporter and the head-line writer had 

[64] 



BUILDERS OF CIVILIZATION 

done their worst. Fortunately the young man 
was able to prove through the president of the 
university from which he was graduated, who 
took the matter up with the British Embassy in 
Washington, that the lectures had been mis- 
quoted, so that he retained his place. 

Bangs was sent to Bang-bang, up in the Malay 
Peninsula. This is not his name, nor is it the 
place, but that does not matter. The story is 
true. His instructions were to start a school 
for the Chinese and to open up mission work. 
The Government had promised to provide the 
land for the school building and Bangs expected 
to find waiting for him a very extensive subscrip- 
tion list, signed by wealthy Chinese, to meet 
the expenses of building. He was instructed to 
present himself to the police-inspector who was 
supposed to be heartily backing the project. 
Shortly after Bangs' arrival the official was sud- 
denly transferred for excellent reasons. Then 
Bangs discovered that the names of all the 
brothel-keepers in the region were on his sub- 
scription list. They had no objections to sub- 
scribing when the inspector of police argued the 
cause, but they felt very differently about paying 
out their cash when a young missionary came 
to collect it. He in turn, had little disposition 
to accept that kind of contributions. 

Meanwhile, Bangs found that the contract for 
the school building had been let to a dishonest 
builder; the time during which the construction 
must be started was rapidly passing, the Chinese 

[65] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

were losing confidence in the enterprise, and the 
Government was impatient. He sent out two 
hundred notices to leading Chinese, inviting 
them to meet and confer on the proper action 
to be taken. No one came. He called a meet- 
ing of his executive committee, with a similar 
response. Then he jumped on his bicycle and 
scoured the highways and byways of the jungle 
in the scorching sun, which registers one hundred 
and forty degrees and no shade every day, to 
round up his committee. The last member he 
roused from bed late at night and called them to 
order. The project was revived and a new sub- 
scription list started, which soon totaled $8,000. 
The school began temporarily in an old church 
with forty -three pupils. At the same time 
preaching services in Chinese, Tamil, and Malay 
were opened in the jail, and a Young Men's 
Association was organized for the Chinese, offer- 
ing opportunities with mutual benefit features 
which appealed greatly to the wealthy men. 
One effective means of raising money for the 
young men was to make a rule that whenever a 
$500 gift was registered the donor might have 
his picture hung in the club rooms. 

Bangs went to the government rest house, but 
the rules there stated that none except govern- 
ment officials might remain more than seven 
days. Even during that period he was liable 
to be dispossessed if an official had need of the 
room. Of course it was just Bangs' luck that 
an official did need it one night about one o'clock. 

[66] 




THE YALE MISSION IN CHANGSHA, 
CHINA, HAS A VERY ACTIVE BOY 
SCOUTS TROOP, IN WHICH THE TRA- 
DITIONAL YALE SPIRIT SOMETHING 

VERY NEW IN CHINA IS BEING 

PROPAGATED. 



BUILDERS OF CIVILIZATION 

Then he went to a Singhalese hotel and shared 
his room with less official and even less com- 
fortable bed-fellows. Nevertheless, the mission- 
ary did not quit; he finished the schoolhouse, 
found the money to pay the contractor, tutored 
some boys for the Cambridge examinations and 
turned the money in to pay for a Chinese preacher, 
put in enough time on the polyglot languages of 
the district to make himself understood, and 
when I visited him was on good terms with 
everybody in town. 

The missionary who cannot stand such acid 
tests as these need not apply for the job. 

Many a time I have had a missionary take 
me out over his field and after showing me some- 
thing of the vast extent of his work, exclaim, 
"There is no job in the homeland as big as this." 
Missionaries in these days do not talk much 
about personal sacrifices, although they have to 
make them, but so does the railway builder, the 
mining engineer, the consular official, the mer- 
chant. In these days men are not speaking with 
pride of the discomforts they endure, but of 
the accomplishments in which they have a part. 

Harry Caldwell, a missionary from Yenping, 
China, came home the other day with a record 
of having made peace between the provincial 
military governor and twenty bands of brigands 
ranging in size from three hundred to two thou- 
sand men in each band. In addition he killed 
seven tigers, saved a city of forty thousand 
people from a revolution, and brought home 

[67] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

seven thousand specimens for the Natural His- 
tory Museum in New York. 

When the city of Nanking was besieged by the 
forces of Chang Hsun in one of the recent revolu- 
tions and the defending forces were exhausted 
after seventy-two hours of continuous fighting, 
they went to Dr. W. E. Macklin, a missionary, 
and said, "You know this man Chang. Will 
you please go out and negotiate with him? Tell 
him that we are perfectly willing to keep on 
fighting. We don't want to surrender, but we 
must have some sleep. Ask him for a truce 
for a few hours until we get rested. Then we 
will fight some more." 

Dr. Macklin explained that such courtesies are 
not usually extended in modern warfare, but 
he did go out to make a peace which saved the 
city from destruction. He made Chang Hsun 
agree not to loot the city when he occupied it 
and when the wily general broke faith with the 
missionary a few days later and allowed his 
troops to go "on the loose" for a few hours, it 
was the aged Dr. Macklin who went before the 
general again and compelled him to return to 
his previous pledge. 

The missionary task is so complex and has so 
many sides to it that no talent which a man 
has is wasted. If he has skill in the use of lan- 
guages, he may at length find himself seated 
around a long table with a group of native pundits 
or literati, compiling a dictionary which for 
the first time reduces to exact statement the 

[68] 



BUILDERS OF CIVILIZATION 

usages of a hundred generations. If the mis- 
sionary develops a special ability to handle 
business affairs, there is the large volume of 
mission business to care for, the purchase of 
property, the disbursement of funds, the keeping 
of accounts. There is an increasing demand on 
the mission field for the highly trained specialist. 
Efficient administration demands that respon- 
sibilities be localized and fixed with those who 
are especially competent. In looking over a 
list of positions which are now open in various 
mission fields I notice needs for printers, man- 
agers, agricultural directors, shopmen, and archi- 
tects. The time will come when all missionaries 
can be selected with reference to similar technical 
qualification. Meanwhile, the man who knows a 
little about all these trades and professions as 
well as several more will find when he arrives on 
his field that no talent is to be wasted. There 
is no task like that of the missionary's to throw 
a man on his own resources and thus develop 
within him every least ability he may possess. 

Tact, common sense, and everlasting pertinacity 
are among the first essentials. A certain mis- 
sionary a few years ago was sent to a remote 
island in the tropics, which was governed by a 
few very literal-minded officials. They had 
made an arrangement by which areas for mission 
work were portioned out to different missions, 
thus preventing missionaries of different denom- 
inations from occupying the same field. This 
particular area had been assigned to a mission 

[69] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

which had never occupied it. There never had 
been a reallotment of territory, and according 
to the law the new missionary could not legally 
conduct a preaching service anywhere in that 
region. 

"What constitutes a preaching service?" asked 
the missionary. 

The official pondered the matter, consulted his 
orders, and explained that a preaching service 
is committed when there is a regular preacher 
who takes a text and stands up to preach a 
sermon just as they do at home. 

"Very well," replied the missionary, feeling 
sure of the good disposition of the Government, 
"I will comply with the law." He gathered his 
people, sat on the floor, made them do likewise, 
and made an exposition of the Bible without 
taking a text. When one of the hearers asked 
for baptism he took him in a canoe outside the 
three-mile limit and baptized him with a broken 
cocoanut shell. The Government was not slow 
to discover that the missionary was not only 
in earnest, but also a great aid to good adminis- 
tration in the island. Recently this missionary 
has returned home with the proposition from this 
same government that if he will find the mis- 
sionary doctors to take charge, the Government 
will erect no less than eight hospitals and turn 
them over to the missionaries to administer. 

An instance recently came to my notice in 
Kuala Lumpur, the capital of the rubber country 
in the Malay Peninsula, which shows how a man 

[70] 



BUILDERS OF CIVILIZATION 

may be called upon to draw on all his talent 
at once. 

A group of Chinese immigrants had squatted 
on the uncleared land of a rubber plantation, 
with the permission of the company. When 
the time came to plant trees the colony was 
dispossessed. At first the squatters seemed very 
unhappy over the transaction, feeling that they 
had been used to clear the land, and were being 
ejected with too little ceremony. However, on 
thinking the matter over, they concluded that 
they had learned a valuable lesson. They had 
discovered that the soil was very rich. There- 
fore they sent their preacher — for they were a 
Christian colony — to the missionary, Reverend 
George Frederick Pykett, to make the following 
proposition : 

"You go to the Government and secure for us 
an allotment of five acres apiece of raw jungle 
land (there were five hundred families), and we 
will clear it, plant it with rubber trees, and 
establish a Christian village." 

Mr. Pykett was shy. The preacher was him- 
self a rubber planter of some experience and 
success; he was serving his charge without salary, 
but an old axiom stood in the way. It was not 
safe, ninety-nine times in a hundred, for the 
missionary to mix up in the business affairs of 
his converts. 

"Very well," said the preacher, "then we will 
go ahead on our own account." 

The missionary reconsidered the matter. The 
[71] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

Chinese are excellent workers and business men, 
individually, but when they come together in 
a cooperative undertaking they usually make a 
bad success of the enterprise. Cooperation is, 
perhaps, the one quality which the Chinese peo- 
ple will have to learn in the next century or go 
under. One of the greatest contributions which 
the Christian Church is making to the Chinese is 
at this very point. It teaches them the methods 
of organized cooperation. Mr. Pykett knew 
that this colony stood a better chance of success 
than would have been the case had the members 
not been Christians, but still it seemed safer 
to help these people, and keep a string on them, 
than to leave them alone. Without much diffi- 
culty he secured the concession from the Govern- 
ment and the colony was started. A few weeks 
later the preacher-manager came around and 
presented the missionary with a new automobile 
and a Mohammedan boy to drive it. 

These gifts do not seem too large in view of 
the fact that an acre of rubber trees brings in a 
profit of about $1,200 a year. These families had 
probably never had a third of that sum to live 
on in Fukien, from which province they had 
migrated to Kuala Lumpur. 

The most remarkable fact with reference to 
the gift, however, was not the gratitude of the 
colony or the rather extraordinary good fortune 
of the missionary, but that the car was pro- 
vided for the express purpose of conveying Mrs. 
Pykett more frequently than would otherwise 

[72] 




THESE NEGRITO CHILDREN LIVE 
IN THE FORESTS OF LUZON. THE 
ONLY AMERICANS THEY EVER SEE 
ARE THE GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS 
AND THE MISSIONARY WHO COMES 
ONCE A MONTH TO INSPECT THE 
SCHOOL WHICH THE MISSION HAS 
ESTABLISHED. 



BUILDERS OF CIVILIZATION 

have been possible to visit the new plantation. 
The colonists realized that it would be very 
difficult to have a model Christian colony with- 
out some attention to the wife problem. At 
this point Mrs. Pykett's good offices were so 
highly prized that they were worth the gift of 
a motor car. 

There is no pathos in all Asia quite equal to 
that of a Christian home where the wife is still 
enthralled in the customs and superstitions of 
her grandmothers. The children receive the 
advantages of at least a rudimentary Christian 
education, the husband, moving about in the 
Christian community, comes in frequent touch 
with the missionary, and quickly catches the 
new pace which is set for him. Too often his 
wife lags behind. She had no education to be- 
gin with, and the traditions of her race do not 
permit her much freedom of movement outside 
her home. The full impact of Christianity can- 
not be made on the Orient until father and 
mother, as well as the children, are products of 
the Christian school. 

Meanwhile there are many situations such as 
that in Kuala Lumpur where the missionary wife 
is urgently needed, although there are seldom 
motor cars to bring her. 

Do the . missionaries live in too fine houses? 
I am frequently asked this question. Reports 
go broadcast that missionaries live in luxury 
such as they could never attain at home and 
that many of them deliberately choose the mis- 

[73] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

sion field because it offers an easy life. My 
observation is that missionaries usually live well, 
although I know many who live in houses which 
are hardly more than unsanitary hovels. A 
mission station is usually a group of buildings 
within a compound. This compound bears the 
same relation to the surroundings that a social 
settlement bears to a congested city block. The 
houses are better constructed, the grounds are 
better cared for, sanitation is developed with 
care. It is very essential that missionaries should 
live well. Their health must be protected. Fur- 
loughs come only once in from five to seven 
years, although commercial houses usually pro- 
vide for more frequent visits home for their 
employes. When a missionary or any member 
of his family falls ill and has to return home 
for medical treatment, some large piece of work 
is paralyzed and there is a serious loss on the 
investment which the missionary society has 
made. Missionary salaries range from nine to 
fifteen hundred dollars, gold, a year. Although 
the cost of living in Asia has risen quite as rapidly 
as it has in the West in the last few years, there 
has been very little readjustment of salaries. 
Many missionaries in the last year have con- 
fessed to me that they are each month running 
deeper into debt. No, the missionary does not 
live too well. 

Some months ago I made a trip up the Min 
River in the province of Fukien from Foochow 
to Yenping. The larger part of the journey was 

[74] 



BUILDERS OF CIVILIZATION 

made on a launch less than seventy -five feet long, 
on which were loaded no less than two hundred 
and seventy Chinese. It was in the spring, be- 
tween seasons, too early for Chinese summer 
clothing, too hot for the closely bound padded 
garments which the Chinese put on in the fall 
and do not take off again until spring. The 
odors were such as one wishes to forget. When 
I ate my breakfast the entire two hundred and 
seventy passengers crowded about me so closely 
that the captain had to order them away to 
avoid capsizing the craft. While eating one had 
to steer carefully to get the food into the right 
mouth. I spent an entire day on this launch, 
from two o'clock in the morning until four the 
next afternoon. My only European companions 
were two missionary ladies and three small chil- 
dren. I cannot dwell on the details of the trip, 
but I had the feeling before it was over that if 
these missionary families had been returning to 
live in marble halls or gold-bedecked palaces 
the compensation for the horrors of the journey 
would be entirely inadequate. Yet when I told 
them how I felt, they assured me that we were 
fortunate in having a relatively comfortable trip. 
One of the ladies had, a few months before, been 
compelled to bring her two babies, ill with a 
raging fever, down on this same journey. 

A missionary's home, as has been said, is like 
a social settlement in the congested portion of 
some American city. It serves the double pur- 
pose of shelter for the missionary family and 

[75] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

actual demonstration of Christian standards of 
living for the neighborhood. The home is open 
to all and there is a never-ending stream of 
visitors. They notice the screens on the win- 
dows and receive an explanation as to why the 
screens are necessary to health as well as to 
comfort. They cannot fail to compare their 
own stuffy, almost unlighted rooms with those 
in which the missionary lives. No detail of 
housekeeping escapes their wondering gaze. But, 
best of all, the men who come there have an 
object-lesson as to the Christian valuation of 
womanhood. They see the wife treated not as 
a slave or as a servant, but as a partner. She 
not only sits at the dinner-table with her hus- 
band, but is actually served first. 

The popular imagination usually locates the 
missionary in village or rural surroundings. As 
a matter of fact, most missionaries live in fairly 
large centers of population and many of them 
in very large cities. The problems of Christianity 
in Asia are not merely rural. Japan, China, 
Korea, the Philippines, Malaysia, and India all 
have their city problems, which are becoming 
increasingly difficult. The cities of Asia are 
growing rapidly. There is a movement from 
village to city, just as there is in the western 
world. Every nation has its "City of Dreadful 
Night." The darkest spot in the world is not in 
London, Paris, New York, or Chicago. It is in 
Tokyo, Shanghai, Calcutta, Bombay, or Madras. 
The missionary has, therefore, to develop a new 

[76] 



BUILDERS OF CIVILIZATION 

technique for the evangelization of the cities 
of Asia. The scattering of tracts, the opening 
of day schools, and the building of chapels are 
entirely inadequate. There is need of play- 
grounds, gymnasiums, clean "movies," reading- 
rooms, day nurseries, and all the devices of the 
institutional church. 

Indeed, institutional churches are now being 
established in many of the large cities. In China 
the movement began in Foochow several years 
ago when an alert missionary, who never allowed 
himself to be encumbered by traditions, went 
down into the center of the city, rented a fine 
old residence and launched a full-grown social 
settlement and church with resident workers, 
kindergarten, cooking classes, and boys' clubs, 
as well as religious services. Here the Christians 
from the educated and wealthier classes may 
meet with the Christians who once were coolies. 
They learn to know each other and in being 
brought face to face have set before them for 
the first time the essential lessons of civic and 
social responsibility. 

The impression is not uncommon that the 
missionary has only to do with the lower classes 
of people. I have often heard this statement 
made in the hotels and on shipboard by tourists 
and merchants. Nothing could be farther from 
the truth. 

Each missionary creates his own constituency. 
He associates with the same kind of people in 
China or in India as he would associate with 

[77] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

at home. Quality recognizes quality the world 
over. I have never yet sought an introduction 
to any distinguished Oriental, no matter how 
high his degree, when I could not find some 
missionary who could with all propriety bring 
about the meeting, although by no means every 
missionary one meets is prepared to do this. 

If I wished to make a detailed investigation 
of the exact status of the Home Rule movement 
in India today, I would go with the missionaries 
out into the villages. There I would learn what 
no government official or upper-class Indian 
gentleman could tell me. If I wanted to know 
the extent of the present division between the 
North and the South in China, I know of mis- 
sionaries who could lead me to more accurate 
and extensive information on that subject than 
I could gather from any consular officer or from 
any official in Peking. More and more in the 
non-Christian countries the common people are 
coming into places of influence. They are be- 
coming the determining force and the missionary 
knows them through and through. 

It may be many decades, even centuries, 
before democracy appears in its noonday splendor 
among the backward nations, but none the less 
the day of the common people is dawning. The 
most marked feature of the Orient today is the 
drift toward democracy. In the creation of 
this movement the missionary, particularly the 
American missionary, has had a very large part. 
He teaches the people to read and to think 

[78] 



BUILDERS OF CIVILIZATION 

together. The Methodist Episcopal Mission in 
Hinghwa, China, for example, publishes the 
only newspaper for more than three million 
people. The American missionary is himself a 
democrat. He fairly exudes democracy wherever 
he goes. He demands religious liberty, preaches 
the brotherhood of men high and low, gives 
himself to the care of the unfit and the weak 
who are so often trampled under foot by the 
backward races, and sets before people the Bible, 
which has ever been the inspiration of democratic 
movements. The missionary becomes uncon- 
sciously the builder of a new civilization or at 
least of a new social ideal. Whatever he builds 
is democratic. It must be, from the very nature 
of the instruction. The missionary not only 
reaches the influential people of the community; 
he creates them. 

The day's labor for a missionary is usually a 
strange mixture of the commonplace, the extra- 
ordinary, and the fundamental. I was once 
allowed to accompany one for a day in India. 
Here is an outline of our program. We rode 
bicycles to the railway station, and took the 
train for a twenty-mile ride up the line. There 
we left our bicycles in the care of the station 
master, and mounted camels for a most excruci- 
ating trip across the fields to some Christian 
villages. We hung on with both hands, while 
diminutive boys, who were hardly taller than 
the camels' knees, led the way through the 
glaring, hot sand. 

[79] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

At the first village we were greeted by the 
preacher, who introduced us to his wife and two 
babies and then escorted us to the outcaste 
section of the village, where a service was held, 
followed by baptisms. The preacher had been 
a Brahmin. Now he stood in the midst of a 
village which to enter would be defilement for 
any caste man and, grasping the headman's hand, 
called him "Brother. 5 ' In this we witnessed the 
laying of the only foundation stone on which 
caste-divided India can ever build republican 
institutions. 

The missionary preceded the baptism in each 
case by pulling some scissors from his pocket 
and cutting the long scalp lock which every 
Hindu wears, so long as he keeps his loyalty to 
Hinduism. The ceremony took place in the 
center of the village, under a tree, the brown 
mud walls of the houses rising on every side. 
First the men were baptized and then the women, 
who squatted in a little group far off at one side. 
After the service there was lusty singing, a 
prayer, and then some sweetmeats. An old lady 
came up to the missionary, stepped out of her 
shoes, made obeisance, touching her forehead to 
the ground, and begged him to inquire about 
her son who had been missing from home for 
several months. She feared that he had been 
kidnapped and sent as an indentured laborer 
to the Fiji Islands. 

At the next village a similar service was held 
and all the men of the village followed their 

[80] 




THIS BAPTISMAL SERVICE IX AN 
INDIAX VILLAGE IS QUITE TYPICAL 
OF THE WAY IX WHICH THE MISSION- 
ARY WORKS. THE PEOPLE ARE OUT- 
CASTES : THE VILLAGE PREACHER 
AND TEACHER WAS FORMERLY A 
BRAHMIX. 



BUILDERS OF CIVILIZATION 

departing guests, single file across the fields, as 
a mark of respect. At the railway station we had 
our lunch which we had brought with us from 
home, drank distilled water for which our parched 
throats had been crying in the villages where 
to drink such water as was offered would have 
meant suicide, and then jumped on the bicycles 
for a ten-mile journey to another village where 
a new church was just being erected. The night 
before we arrived at this village there had been 
an anti-Christian riot, in which several converts 
had been beaten and it had been necessary to 
smuggle the women away for security. The 
missionary inspected the new building, and coun- 
seled with the preacher about the riot. He also 
had a conference with the school-teacher, and 
then we started on for another ten miles to an 
Indian mud-house, where we had our dinner. 
From this village we took the train again and 
reached home just before midnight. 

One may dwell upon any aspect of such a day 
as pleases the imagination. The railway train 
and the camels traveled side by side; the bicycles 
passed a procession of shuffling elephants in the 
dusk of evening. The Brahmin stood by the 
outcaste, the woman grovelled in the dust. 
The churchyard was trampled by a mob which 
had threatened to kill the Christian converts. 
The mob had been restrained by fear of the 
police, who represent the British Raj and are 
sworn to uphold religious liberty in the land. 
More than once we overtook the bearers of 

[81] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

crude biers on which were stretched the white- 
robed victims of the plague, whom the disease 
had smitten that very day. These little pro- 
cessions were on their way to the burning- ghats 
of the Ganges. But all these events belong with 
the externals. 

The important fact to remember is that here 
is a man, by birth separated as light is separated 
from darkness from his neighbors and his parish- 
ioners, who has chosen to cross the gulf and 
share his life, his ideals, his faith, his standards 
of living with them. He preaches not merely 
by what he says, but most emphatically of all 
by being there. He exposes himself to the most 
searching examination, day after day, year after 
year. His life is an open book, the only book of 
any sort which the vast majority of the people 
can read. Every day is a fight, a struggle with 
himself, a struggle with a social order ages old 
which knows not yet how to make life livable or 
death dieable. To his house by the side of the 
road come the most friendless of all God's crea- 
tures, and out from the doors of that home go 
influences for the wellbeing of the world which 
no man can measure. 

The two turning points in missionary history, 
so far as the selection of personnel is concerned, 
are the organization of the Student Volunteer 
Movement thirty-two years ago and the Edin- 
burgh Conference on Foreign Missions in 1910. 
The former modified all the later development 
of mission work by laying the responsibility of 

[82] 



BUILDERS OF CIVILIZATION 

volunteering on the student bodies of the various 
colleges rather than on the churches. At Edin- 
burgh new standards of efficiency were so empha- 
sized and defined that every phase of missionary 
organization and administration took on new 
vitality. 

A brief outline of the various roads which a 
young missionary recruit now has to travel 
before he is actually installed in his work on 
the foreign field may be illuminating. Presumably 
he either becomes a Student Volunteer while in 
college or at least receives there the impetus 
which eventually leads him to make applica- 
tion to the Board of Foreign Missions of his 
denomination to be sent out as a missionary. 
There was a time, not many decades ago, when 
his application had to be accompanied with the 
promise that he would offer himself to go when- 
ever and wherever his church might wish to 
send him. Meanwhile he would continue his 
course of general study in college and later enter 
some theological seminary or a medical school. 
Practically all special training for his work was 
deferred until he reached the field. The result 
frequently was that he never had any special 
training at all. The Edinburgh Conference re- 
ceived the astonishing report that forty-seven 
per cent of the missionaries on the field could 
not speak the language of the people w T ith whom 
they were supposed to work. 

Now, however, the volunteer usually offers 
himself for some special kind of work. Each 

[83] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

mission board keeps a list of positions for which 
men or women are needed. Many of these 
openings call for highly technical training. Just 
now, for example, there is a very great demand 
for various kinds of educational experts: men 
competent to take charge of commercial schools 
which teach book-keeping, stenography, type- 
writing, and business methods; shop-men for tech- 
nical courses; agricultural directors; and music 
teachers. There is also urgent need for archi- 
tects to superintend the vast building operations 
which are continually being inaugurated, athletic 
directors, printers, and trained nurses. 

One important result of the Edinburgh Con- 
ference was the establishment of a Board of 
Missionary Preparation in the United States; 
this drew up a standard list of courses which 
ought to go into the preparation of the mission- 
ary for his task. After that came the Hartford 
School of Missions, and, later, the establishment 
of departments of missions, or professorships, in 
all the leading theological seminaries. Coordinate 
with this was the institution of Union Language 
Schools in important centers in the Orient. Now 
a Student Volunteer has laid out for him a long 
course of study and preparation, which, after he 
leaves college, is being constantly aimed to 
prepare him for his specific task. Even after 
the candidate has arrived in the field of his 
labors he must still submit to the test of his 
fitness to take up the work. If, after two or 
three years, he has proved unequal to the dif- 

[84] 



BUILDERS OF CIVILIZATION 

ficult task of learning the language, or fails 
in ability to come into sympathetic relations 
with the people, he will probably have to return 
home. Some mission stations even have the 
right to decide on the congeniality of the candi- 
date as a fellow-worker. 

Meanwhile, between the day he volunteers 
and the time of his departure for his work, there 
are the questions of health and marriage to 
consider. I have heard of one man who was 
given no less than seven medical examinations. 
If a married man is to be sent, experience has 
demonstrated times without number that his 
future usefulness will depend not more upon 
his health than upon his wife. Many women, 
for example, cannot stand the tropics. Again, 
the candidate may be impelled by some evil 
genius to take one final fling before he enters 
his consecrated work by marrying a not ade- 
quately consecrated wife. That will mean im- 
paired usefulness from the day he begins his 
work and probably an early return, with a con- 
sequent loss of a considerable investment by 
the missionary organization. It is generally 
reckoned that no missionary can attain his max- 
imum usefulness until after he has had five or 
six years' experience with the language and the 
people. Even though this apparently rude in- 
vasion of a domain where one is usually assumed 
to have the power of the freest choice will seem 
intolerable, it is none the less necessary and 
based on the soundest of experience. My ob- 

[85] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

servation is that American business houses in 
the Orient could doubtless increase the efficiency 
of their staffs very largely if only they could 
exercise a similar supervision of their employes 
in the matter of marriage. 

All these various tests of a candidate's ability 
to do the work are subordinate to questions of 
character. Before young men or young women 
are sent to the foreign field they must come 
before an examining board of thoroughly com- 
petent people and give evidence of personal 
character and of personality which will justify 
the continuation of the preparation. Small 
wonder is it, therefore, that only about one in 
twenty of those who apply for missionary work 
ever reach the field. 

One may readily see that the new type of 
missionary must be an all-round man. He is 
an unofficial ambassador for his government, 
creating good will and sympathetic understanding; 
he is a peace-maker, interpreter, and builder of 
new social and economic orders. He may become 
even a statesman, whose advice and counsel is 
sought and valued by governments. 



[86] 



THE MISSIONARY SCHOOLMASTER 



CHAPTER V 
THE MISSIONARY SCHOOLMASTER 

Thirty-two years ago a steamer anchored at 
Woosung at the mouth of the Yangtze to dis- 
charge passengers for Shanghai. One of them 
was a young American by the name of Hawks 
Pott, from New York, a missionary sent out by 
the Protestant Episcopal Church to join the staff 
of St. John's College. But the college was no 
college at all; it was only a low-grade boarding 
school with sixty boys, all of whom were on a 
charity basis. Even their shoes were given to 
them. The prospects for a real college must 
have seemed rather dim. 

However, about that time the Chinese of 
Shanghai began to wake up to the necessity of 
learning to use English. The foreigners were 
coming there in large numbers to do business. 
They had not the patience to learn Chinese, so 
some of the wealthy merchants of the city went 
to St. John's and asked that their boys be ad- 
mitted to learn the foreigners' language. "Of 
course you understand that St. John's is a mis- 
sionary school?" Yes, they understood that, 
and were willing to take the chances of their 
sons being converted. "Very well, then, they 
can come if you are willing to pay for the teach- 
ing." The day those boys entered the school as 

[89] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

paying pupils marked a new stage in the history 
of the institution. 

Recently I had the privilege of calling on this 
missionary who was put ashore at Woosung 
thirty-two years ago. I found him in the pres- 
ident's office, the director of a university which 
has 833 students, forty-five teachers, six college 
departments, and one of the most attractive 
campuses I have seen the world over. 

"Let me see," said Dr. Pott, running through 
the pages of the St. John's Alumni Catalogue, 
"of course you know Wellington Koo. He is 
one of my boys. Then there is Alfred Sze, the 
Chinese minister in London, and Dr. Yen, who 
has been the Chinese minister in Berlin; they 
also are graduates of St. John's." 

Not a bad record, that, for a single missionary 
college to have tutored the three foreign repre- 
sentatives of China upon whom has fallen the 
heaviest burden of Chinese diplomacy during 
these last few critical years! After St. John's 
had done for them what it could, Dr. Pott had 
directed them to the United States to finish their 
training at Cornell and Columbia. 

Dr. Pott modestly continued through his 
alumni lists, mentioning a score more of names 
of his other graduates who were occupying places 
of trust and great responsibility; men like Dr. 
Tsur, then president of Tsing Hua College, where 
the indemnity students are selected and prepared 
for America, and the president of the Hanyang 
Iron Works. St. John's still lays special stress 

[90] 




DAVID YU, NOW GENERAL SECRE- 
TARY OF THE INTERNATIONAL COM 
MITPEE OF THE Y. M. C. A. IN CHINA, 
WAS FORMERLY A LECTURER ON 
JAPAN. THIS WAS ONE OF HIS EX- 
HIBITS SHOWING CHINA'S INSECURE 
EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION AS COM- 
PARED WITH THE UNITED STATES, 
GERMANY, ENGLAND, AND JAPAN. 
THE BASES OF THESE CUBES SHOW 
THE PROPORTION OF LITERACY RELA- 
TIVE TO THE TOTAL POPULATION. 



THE MISSIONARY SCHOOLMASTER 

on the teaching of English and is educating the 
sons of some of the most distinguished families 
in China. The university is by no means self- 
supporting, any more than are our American 
universities, but the receipts from tuition are 
about $45,000, gold, each year. 

This story suggests something of the general 
character of the background out of which the 
last three decades of missionary education have 
come, not merely in China but elsewhere in the 
Orient. Most mission colleges were, in the 
beginning, colleges only in name. In fact, they 
were charity boarding schools. Their primary 
purpose, like that of our American colleges in 
the early days, was to raise up and train a literate 
clergy. They had to take their pupils unpre- 
pared, wherever they could find them. They 
drew, therefore, largely from the coolie, outcaste, 
and servant classes. But today if you were per- 
mitted to attend the alumni dinner at the Doshisha 
in Kyoto, Peking University, the Anglo-Chinese 
Colleges at Foochow or Singapore, the American 
College at Madura, the Christian College at 
Lucknow, or Forman College at Lahore, you 
would meet some of the most distinguished and 
influential men of the entire Orient. 

There were the best of reasons why the early 
mission colleges and schools had to be free schools, 
with even shoes provided. The missionary had 
gone to an alien land to sell a new idea which 
no one wished to buy. He adopted an approved 
business method, selling the idea on approval, 

[91] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

even going so far as to distribute free samples. 
He began with the servants of his own house- 
hold, the sons of his cook, his bihishti, his gardener. 
In that way the missionary was able quickly to 
develop native helpers to assist him in trans- 
lating, teaching, and preaching. But incidentally, 
or perhaps primarily, he sold the idea of Western 
learning to the East. 

In those days famines, plagues, and floods were 
very common; indeed, they are still an annual 
menace. They left in their wake hosts of or- 
phans. The missionary opened his doors to 
receive these waifs and then cabled to America 
for funds to provide food. The money was forth- 
coming and orphanages were established, hun- 
dreds of them. Of course boys and girls were 
immediately placed under instruction and many 
of them have risen to places of distinction, thus 
proving that even the most unpromising material 
can be transformed by Christian education. The 
missions are now going out of the orphanage 
business as rapidly as they can, for they have 
devised better and cheaper ways to provide for 
such victims, but the orphanage helped consider- 
ably not merely to demonstrate the disinterested, 
humanitarian motive of the mission but also to 
prove the value of education. 

The missionary x was the pioneer of Western 
learning throughout Asia. The East India Com- 
pany had to borrow William Carey to carry on 
its school for the training of Indian clerks; later 
the British Government took from Alexander 

[92] 



THE MISSIONARY SCHOOLMASTER 

Duff, a Scotch missionary, the program of Indian 
education which, in the main, is still followed. 
Japan drew its first inspiration for Western edu- 
cation from missionary sources, and very many 
of its older statesmen who are now in their prime 
or are just passing off the stage were first launched 
into the era of enlightenment from mission 
schools. Marquis Okuma never tires of telling 
what he owes to the inspiration of such pioneer 
missionaries as Verbeck. That Japan can now 
make the proud boast that over ninety-eight per 
cent of her school population is in school, is due 
in the first instance to the missionary. China, 
watching with one eye what western learning was 
doing for Japan and with the other what the 
mission schools were doing at home, kicked over 
her ancient educational system and started a new 
structure upon plans first drawn up by the 
missionaries. 

The idea has been thoroughly sold to Asia. 
She now wants, more than anything else in the 
world, better educational facilities. Ask a citizen 
of any Oriental country today what three things 
he most desires for his people. Two of the an- 
swers will vary according to the local conditions, 
but one is uniformly the same from Sapporo to 
Hyderabad — better schools. Not all schools are 
so favorably situated as St. John's in Shanghai. 
There are hundreds of millions of people in Asia 
whose entire family income is not equal to the 
$220. Mex., which St. John's is able to charge 
for tuition. It is not the aim of every school 

[93] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

to become self-supporting. The glory of the 
Christian ideal has always been that the primary 
care is for the poor and unfortunate. But every 
year the mission schools are able to shift their 
work more from the purely charity basis toward 
one of self-respecting independence. Western 
education is now so highly prized that pupils 
and parents alike are willing to make superlative 
sacrifices to acquire it. Indeed, the graduates of 
mission colleges, and even natives who have 
not had the privileges of such education, are 
already beginning to make large gifts for pur- 
poses of endowment. Only last year Mr. Katsuka 
of Tokyo gave over $100,000 to the Methodist 
college of that city. The missionary school- 
master is now sailing not against the current but 
with it. 

The story of the Anglo-Chinese College at 
Singapore, for example, reads like an amazing 
romance. A little more than thirty years ago 
William F. Oldham was sent from India to 
start a Methodist mission in the Straits, but, as 
was somewhat characteristic of the Methodists 
in those days, no funds were provided wherewith 
to start said mission. Oldham was a son of the 
Orient, born in India, educated in the United 
States, and happily combining a genius for good 
nature with a genius for doing and saying ex- 
actly the right thing at the right time. He 
arrived in Singapore without a cent. 

For the last hundred years and more the 
Straits of Malacca have been the happy hunting- 

[94] 



THE MISSIONARY SCHOOLMASTER 

ground for the Chinese. That strip of land pro- 
jecting from Burma down through the tropics 
to the equator is perhaps, mile for mile, the 
richest area in the world. The Chinese were 
the first to discover the fact. From Southern 
China they came in great numbers, and the 
frugality and industry which were the prime 
necessities for a bare existence in the crowded 
valleys of China made them rich in Malaysia. 
One man who came to the Straits sixty-five years 
ago as a coolie died last year reported worth 
more than $20,000,000. The business of Singa- 
pore is largely in the hands of the Chinese. There 
are no less than 40,000 Chinese in that one city 
who were born there, as well as 135,000 who 
have migrated. They represent the largest as 
well as the most progressive block of that very 
cosmopolitan population. The young Methodist 
missionary soon found himself taken to the heart 
of the Straits Chinese. 

Not long after his arrival he was invited to 
lecture before the Celestial Reasoning Associa- 
tion, an educational organization of Chinese 
merchants. He selected astronomy as a safe 
topic for the lecture. The next week the penni- 
less missionary became tutor in English to a 
prominent Chinese gentleman. In a month he 
had a class of thirty -six boys, most of them rich 
men's sons. A little later the merchants gave 
him $6,200 with which to start a school. The 
Government, always willing to encourage the 
Chinese in the Straits, in marked contrast to 

[95] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

the American policy in the Philippines, also con- 
tributed a few thousand dollars and the Method- 
ist Anglo-Chinese School was launched. In ten 
years this school began to enroll a thousand 
pupils annually and now there are more than 
1,600. The most extraordinary part of this story 
is that the school, now a college, has never yet 
cost a missionary a cent for operating expenses, 
not even for the salary of the teachers. At the 
same time the institution has always been dis- 
tinctly a Christian school and under the direct 
control of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 

The fame of the Anglo-Chinese College of 
Singapore spread throughout the region from 
Penang to Java. The Chinese immigrants, who 
come in at the rate of half a million each year, 
leaving the graves of their ancestors behind them 
in Foochow, Amoy, and Canton, leave also 
much of the conservatism and immobility of their 
race. In the new land they are eager for new 
ideas. First of all they desire education. The 
result has been that the Methodists now have 
no less than eight Anglo-Chinese schools scat- 
tered over the peninsula and the islands, in which 
the missionary is the schoolmaster, while the 
entire expenses of the schools are borne by the 
patrons, sometimes with the aid of the Govern- 
ment. The missionaries are, of course, free to 
engage in evangelistic work outside of school 
hours, the result being that everywhere the 
church follows the schoolhouse. Not long ago a 
Singapore merchant came to New York and 

[96] 



THE MISSIONARY SCHOOLMASTER 

offered the founder of this system of schools, 
now Bishop Oldham, some hundreds of thousands 
of dollars if only he would return to Singapore 
and give his personal direction to the enlarge- 
ment and extension of the Anglo-Chinese Col- 
lege. 

These educational triumphs in the mission 
field have been accomplished in the face of great 
handicaps. Missionaries have usually been se- 
lected with slight reference to their qualifications 
as teachers. The primary object of the foreign 
missionary has always been to make converts to 
Christianity and to raise up a self-propagating, 
self-supporting church. His work as a teacher 
was first undertaken to contribute to his main 
purpose and even in later years the work of 
teaching has been only one of his many duties. 
Only recently a missionary remarked to me, "I 
am supposed to occupy the chair of political 
economy in a college, but my chair has proved 
to be a bench with a lot of stools added." Then 
he went on to enumerate the other responsi- 
bilities which he has had to assume. Such heavy 
burdens and division of interests do not promote 
the highest efficiency. The understaffed condi- 
tion of every mission field, due to the inability 
of mission boards to find suitable recruits or to 
support them when found, leaves one amazed 
that the missionary is able to do so many things, 
and so many kinds of things, and yet do them 
as well as he does. 

It is not generally understood how the changes 
[97] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

in the religious thought of the last few decades 
have begun to modify the work of the mission- 
ary. In the days when salvation was the simple 
problem of securing an experience of conversion 
with a view to putting the convert in the path 
which leads directly to the shining gates of 
Heaven, the task was one of simple evangelism. 
Now that the Christian doctrine of salvation is 
being reconsidered and extended to cover con- 
ditions of body and mind as well as of soul, the 
missionary purpose must also be re-defined. The 
new missionary marks the progress of his con- 
verts not merely by the fact that they have 
torn out the idols, but also by the fact that they 
have changed the course of the sewer and begun 
to desire to learn to read. It is now generally 
conceded that although a man may be a Christian 
and still believe that the world is flat, he will 
probably be a better and more effective Chris- 
tian if he knows that it is round. 

Changes of thought on the mission field come 
more slowly than at home. The missionary has 
taken himself out of their main currents of 
thought and immersed himself in action of the 
most strenuous kind. It so happens that there 
is not yet entire agreement in the mission field 
as to the value of education as an agency of 
salvation. Within four years I have sat in a 
mission meeting and heard a representative of 
a church which in America gathers the best- 
educated people of the community, say, "I don't 
see how you missionaries find so much time to 

[98] 




PREM DAS (SERVANT OF LOVE) 
WAS RECENTLY BEATEN BY THE 
LANDLORDS FOR VENTURING TO 
TEACH THESE BOYS TO READ AND 
TO FIGURE ACCOUNTS. HE SPENT 
SEVERAL WEEKS IN THE HOSPITAL, 
BUT AS SOON AS ABLE RETURNED 
TO HIS PRIMITIVE SCHOOL UNDER 
THE PROTECTION OF THE POLICE 
AND OF THE MISSIONARY. 



J 



THE MISSIONARY SCHOOLMASTER 

teach school. I am out here to save souls and 
I don't have time for anything else." When one 
knows that this speaker has just as much voice 
in determining the educational policy of that 
mission as the most highly trained specialist 
from an American teachers' college, one sees one 
of the great weaknesses of mission organization 
in many places. However, one has only to scan 
the lists of new missionaries who are being sent 
to the field to see that within a very few years 
practically every missionary is going to be a 
highly trained specialist, prepared for a specific 
task. The mission school is, therefore, sure to 
be lifted steadily to higher standards of quality 
and work. 

Already the missions are beginning to lead out 
with radical changes of educational policy. The 
missionary carried to Asia the American venera- 
tion of the college. As rapidly as possible he 
gathered up what pupils he could from the 
primary and secondary schools, to put them into 
college. This method was necessary, and still is, 
for the entire educational work of the Orient, 
both public and private, is now all but marking 
time, waiting for the production of a sufficient 
number of trained native teachers to carry on 
the present work and extend it. For this pur- 
pose the college is most essential. On the other 
hand, the college now finds that it has far too 
few feeders in the form of primary schools. Most 
children do not get beyond the primary school. 
The recognition of this fact, in Asia as well as 

[99] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

in America, is calling for a greater emphasis on 
the development of primary schools. 

The population of the Orient is rural. The 
people live by tilling the soil, employing prim- 
itive methods which have changed little in forty 
centuries. The missionary schoolmaster, there- 
fore, faces the task of a Hampton and a Tus- 
kegee rather than that of a Harvard and a Yale. 
It is often the case at present that the mission- 
ary has taken his converts as far as they can go 
until their economic condition has been improved. 
Neither Christianity nor civilization can develop 
far in advance of the ability and opportunity 
of the individual to earn sufficient money to 
sustain better standards of living or more effective 
forms of government. Perhaps the most notable 
illustrations of how the missions are branching 
out along these lines of agricultural and voca- 
tional training are found in the work of Sam 
Higginbottom at Allahabad, India, and Joseph 
Baillie at Nanking, China, although there is 
hardly a mission station anywhere today which 
is not trying to make its education more practical. 

Higginbottom is preaching the gospel of deep 
plowing and silos. When he finds that India 
produces only eighty pounds of clean cotton 
while the United States produces two hundred 
and Egypt four hundred pounds to the acre, he 
himself goes to an agricultural school, learns 
how to raise cotton, and then starts his boys off 
with experiments in soil pulverization, fertiliza- 
tion, and seed selection. He is none the less a 

[100] 



THE MISSIONARY SCHOOLMASTER 

missionary because he mixes his Bible study 
with lessons on the growing of sugar cane and 
wheat. Already Gwalior State has asked the 
Presbyterian mission to loan Higginbottom for 
part time as government director of agriculture. 
Indeed, this enthusiastic young American has 
already pioneered the way for the Government, 
which has admittedly failed in most of its efforts 
to teach agriculture to the Indians. As a by- 
product of his work the high caste pupil learns 
the dignity of labor and rubs the edges off his 
caste prejudices. Not long ago a visitor to 
Allahabad found four sons of rajahs hard at 
work filling a silo. Hitherto the sight of an 
Indian prince working with his hands has been 
as rare as an elephant-hunt on Broadway. 

Joseph Baillie of Nanking is usually referred 
to as "quite a character." It took him a long 
time to find his place in the missionary work of 
China, but at last he discovered it. He is teach- 
ing the Chinese to plant trees. Tree-planting 
will reforest the bare hills and prevent floods. 
It will reclaim millions of acres of land which 
! are now a waste. Baillie, backed by mission, 
college, gentry, and government, has so firmly 
planted his idea in the minds of the Chinese 
that tree-planting has come to be almost a hobby. 
Provinces have taken it up, and cities — yes, and 
villages. A national Arbor Day has been estab- 
lished and is generally observed. Next to the 
suppression of opium-smoking this crusade of 
tree-planting is about the most vigorous sign of 

[101] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

a new life in China. If space permitted I might 
enumerate many other missionaries who are 
breaking away from conventional educational 
theory and practice to enter upon new paths 
which promise to revolutionize trades and even 
industries. For example, a missionary down at 
Hinghwa recently introduced a new model of 
hand-loom which greatly improves the quality 
of cloth produced. This same missionary man 
showed the rice-growers how to multiply the 
value of their fertilizer five times, by substituting 
a grinding process for the method of turning 
sea-shells in which the value of the bone is largely 
lost. 

This kind of practical missionary education is 
capable of almost infinite extension. Hitherto 
the missions have held back from industrial 
training and vocational education of these sorts, 
because there were so few men available to con- 
duct the work and also because of the great ex- 
pense involved. However, if the missionary is to 
retain the place of educational leadership which 
he has won it will soon be necessary for him 
greatly to increase this kind of work. Asia is 
demanding that its new schools be made very 
practical. 

The American administration of the Philip- 
pines has exercised a profound influence upon 
things educational throughout the entire Orient. 
The blase colonial administrator was inclined to 
smile when Uncle Sam, in his exuberance of en- 
thusiasm and sentimentality, began to export 

[102] 



THE MISSIONARY SCHOOLMASTER 

schoolteachers by the shipload to the Philippines. 
None smile now. Notwithstanding the fact that 
after eighteen years of effort over fifty-five per 
cent of the rather scant Filipino population over 
ten years of age is still illiterate, and half of the 
school population is still unprovided with schools, 
none jeers at Uncle Sam's schools. Instead, other 
governments are sending delegations there to 
study them. The missionary will do well to 
know them carefully. They have proved prac- 
tical: they have demonstrated that the Oriental 
is worthy of careful education, but better still 
they have introduced a new idea. 

The great deficiency of the average mission 
and government school in China and India, has 
been that it does not yet think in terms of citizen- 
ship. The mission school is designed primarily to 
prepare for intelligent church membership; the 
government school tends chiefly to prepare clerks 
for government offices. This is especially true in 
India. Because of the tremendous impetus given 
by the American policy in the Philippines to the 
desire for self-government throughout the Orient, 
accelerated as it has been by the present war, 
any school which expects to win or keep the 
confidence of the people will have to consider 
this rising tide. Some missionaries will argue 
that it is unnecessary to regard this aspect of 
education, inasmuch as a good Christian will, 
of course, be a good citizen. But such an answer 
will not satisfy the Indian or the Chinese. 

The missionary schoolmaster is now at the 
[103] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

parting of the ways, so far as his leadership is 
concerned. Either he must prepare himself to 
conduct a school better than can the returned 
student who has finished his course in pedagogy 
at Harvard, Yale, Oxford, or Cambridge, and to 
offer the broadest kind of training for citizenship 
in the new governments which are, or which are 
to be, or he will most certainly lose the place 
which he has won. 

Two of the most important contributions of 
the mission school remain to be mentioned. 

Last spring I was a guest at a Chinese feast 
in one of the great provincial cities of China. 
Aside from the amazing dishes set before the 
dozen guests, the feast was interesting because 
it was a gathering of the kind of men who are 
actually governing China. With the exception of 
myself and two others, they were politicians, 
representing ranks corresponding approximately 
to that of city aldermen. 

The men all came in sedan chairs, partly be- 
cause etiquette requires it, but also because 
many of them are physically incapable of walking 
a mile in any reasonable time. It is not too well 
understood that while the lower class Chinese 
are tough and strong as oxen, the upper classes 
are soft and effeminate. Most of the men carried 
fans and handled them in a most ladylike manner. 
Many of them were drunk when they arrived, 
and drunker still when the feast was over. They 
ate and drank for two hours and a half in the 
middle of the day and then hurried off to attend 

[104] 



THE MISSIONARY SCHOOLMASTER 

a second feast, which was due to begin at seven 
in the evening. Nearly every man there was 
overfed and dyspeptic. The conversation was 
foul and indecent. That week the republic was 
sliding swiftly toward revolution and chaos. 
Meanwhile these officials gorged themselves, fid- 
dling while Rome burned. This vision of China 
will always remain for me one of the most un- 
pleasant I have to remember. 

A few weeks later I attended an athletic meet 
on the grounds of Peking University, a mission- 
ary institution. The teams from Tsing Hua Col- 
lege, where the indemnity students are prepared, 
and from the Government Normal College were 
competing with the home athletes. I saw boys 
go into a gruelling two-mile race and stick to it 
until they stumbled from exhaustion and were 
carried from the field. Four boys tied for the 
pole-vault at ten feet six, and fought it out for 
half an hour. All over the field smaller boys, 
hero-worshipers, carried blankets for their favor- 
ites, moved hurdles on and off the track, and 
did many kinds of menial labor which not many 
years ago would have been considered suited 
only to coolies. When a boy lost a race, instead 
of losing face, he went and shook hands with the 
one who had defeated him. 

China is being governed today by these over- 
fed, polygamous, dissipated politicians who live 
from feast to feast, but tomorrow — ? Do you 
think that these 160,000 boys and girls now under 
instruction in mission schools, learning modern 

[105] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

science, clean living, and good sportsmanship, will 
always be content with things as they are? 

Some of those boys at Peking University may 
never amount to much. Some of them may 
turn out to be crooks. There are already mission- 
school graduates of that character in every 
country in the Orient. But, for that matter, 
turn to the alumni catalogue of any American 
university and you will find a percentage of the 
same sort. Most of the mission students do 
turn out well, in spite of the fact that the dead 
weight of centuries of accumulated corruption 
and ignorance falls upon their backs the moment 
they leave the college gate. Remember that 
China is a land of six or seven per cent literacy. 
In America a college education is no longer a 
unique preparation for life; in China it makes 
a boy a prince. In the next generation these 
boys, and the girls too, are going to have a place. 
Incidentally, one may add, there is little hope 
for China until that day comes. 

Perhaps the greatest contribution of the mis- 
sion school to Asia, is the attention which it has 
given to the education of girls. In the care for 
boys the missions have, as I have already men- 
tioned, been sailing with the tide for several 
decades. Not so, as regards the girls. It has 
been frequently said that Asia, from one end 
to the other, is one long crime against woman- 
hood. The crime begins in infancy and childhood. 
It is the missionary teacher who is bringing the 
Orient a new valuation of womanhood. Chris- 

[106] 







ALTHOUGH JAPAN HAS PRACTI- 
CALLY ALL OF HER SCHOOL POPU- 
LATION BETWEEN THE AGES OF 
SIX AND TWELVE IN SCHOOL, SHE 
STILL FEELS THE NEED OF SUPPLE- 
MENTARY AGENCIES FOR THE TRAIN- 
ING OF THE YOUTH. THIS IS A 
CLASS IN THE HOUSE OF THE 
FRIENDLY NEIGHBOR, A SOCIAL SET- 
TLEMENT MAINTAINED BY MADAME 
OMORI, IN TOKYO. 



THE MISSIONARY SCHOOLMASTER 

tianity in Asia is marked by the fact that it be- 
lieves in educating girls. 

When I asked Professor Nitobe of the Imperial 
University in Tokyo to name the contributions 
which, in his estimation, Christianity has made to 
Japan, he placed first the education of women. 
"The education of boys would probably have 
been taken care of by the Government," he said 
to me, "but the girls would have fared badly 
without the example and inspiration of the mis- 
sions." Then he told me of an incident which, 
while it illustrates only one phase of the subject, 
will serve to mark the point. 

A little while ago a journalist came to Pro- 
fessor Nitobe and said, "Give me the names of 
some of the best women teachers who have 
been doing exceptionally good work but have 
not yet received public recognition. I wish to 
visit their schools and write about them in my 
magazine." 

"What did you find?" asked Professor Nitobe 
a few weeks later, when the man returned. 

"I notice this difference between the older and 
the Christian teachers," he replied. "While they 
are all excellent women, I find that those teachers 
who were trained under the old Confucian ethics 
are cold, and without enthusiasm. I find that 
the Christian teachers are more enthusiastic, 
more tender." 

"That is the great contribution of Christianity 
to Japan," remarked Professor Nitobe to me. 
"It has made pur women more tender. Our old 

[107] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

religious and ethical system stifled the emotions, 
dammed them up, gave them no right channels 
of expression." 

Perhaps, when all the accounts are cast up, 
it may be found that the work which is now go- 
ing on quietly in each mission station, always 
with great respect for the prejudices of the 
people, for the education and the emancipation 
of those who are to be the mothers of the next 
generation, may prove the greatest gift of the 
West to the East. 

One should never neglect this factor when 
considering the very complex Oriental problem 
which is to confront the world as soon as the 
War is over: there are about 900,000 pupils under 
instruction in the mission schools of Asia. 



[108] 



THE MISSIONARY DOCTOR 



CHAPTER VI 
THE MISSIONARY DOCTOR 

Before a few doses of quinine or a small vial 
of iodine superstition and prejudice give way. 

The missionary doctor may be accepted not 
so much for his professional standing as for his 
powers as an apparent magician, but whatever 
the afflicted man, his family, and his neighbors 
may think of him, they are glad to accept his 
services. The village may be slow to extend 
its gratitude and affection to the colonial govern- 
ment's civil surgeon. The village priest may 
make trouble for the Christian preacher and the 
village sage may hold his ground before the 
missionary schoolteacher, but the astrologer or 
the witch-doctor cannot keep the loyalty of the 
man with a stomach-ache when there is a modern 
doctor within call. The science of modern 
medicine is now well established in Japan, al- 
though not everywhere accepted, and is rapidly 
becoming indigenous. Elsewhere in Asia and in 
Africa the secrets of health are still almost ex- 
clusively within the keeping of the foreigner, either 
the colonial official or the missionary. Their 
only rival, and he has already become a formidable 
one, is the patent medicine agent. 

The missionary may make the not very proud 
claim that he was the first to introduce the 

cm] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

patent painkiller and the elixir. He is to be 
acquitted of conscious fault, for he took the 
painkiller out with him as much for himself and 
for his own family as for his prospective con- 
verts. The patent medicine manufacturer, quick 
to see the opportunity for the development of 
new markets, provided the new missionary with 
cases of medicine as his personal contribution to 
the cause, and then sent agents to put up bill- 
boards from Tokyo to Bombay announcing the 
virtues of this marvelous Western remedy. The 
missionary has learned wisdom. He continues 
to order cod liver oil by the barrel, but he no 
longer distributes patent nostrums. But patent 
medicine agents and the billboards are still 
there and have apparently come to stay. There 
is hardly a bulletin board in all Asia which does 
not carry the advertisement of some patent 
medicine, many of them offering certain cures 
for venereal disease, and the new native news- 
papers, which are increasing like a conflagration, 
would quickly fail but for the advertisements of 
cigarettes and of these cures. Dr. Edward 
Hume of the Yale Mission in Changsha, China, 
told me that he had even seen a medicine which 
was advertised to cure the bound feet which are 
now going out of fashion among the Chinese 
women. 

The following advertisement, clipped from a 
newspaper in the Federated Malay States, aside 
from being a not unfair specimen of what one 
may read in almost any newspaper in Asia, 

[112] 




THE EAST HAS TAKEN ENTHUSIAS- 
TICALLY TO BILLBOARDS AND ALSO 
TO WESTERN PATENT MEDICINES. 
SUCH ADVERTISEMENTS AS THESE 
ARE APPEARING EVERYWHERE, FROM 
TOKYO TO BOMBAY. 



THE MISSIONARY DOCTOR 

illustrates the fact that human nature, high and 
low, does not vary greatly the world over, re- 
gardless of the tint of the skin. 

Her Highness INCHI BESAR, Sultana the 
mother of H. H. Sir Ibrahim, Sultan of Johore, 
who has been suffering from Lumbago and Back- 
ache for five or six months has taken the 

JONGKEENA 
mixture with good results as the following letter 
certifies : 

Johore, Sunny Side 
Dear Y. Tan, 

In receipt of yours of 20th instant about the 
medicine "Jongkeena" I am taking it every day. 
I have finished three bottles. It is doing me 
very good. I cannot say I am alright yet. But 
I feel much better. The pain on my back is 
better only my feet is still weak and little pain 
and I might, however, I hope to get well soon. 

Thank God your kindness has relieve me of 
some pain and I thank you. The Doctors say 
it is Lumbago old peoples' sickness and fever 
cold. You can make good my letter. 

Thanking you again for your kindness. 
Yours truly, 

(sd) INCHI BESAR. 

The world production of food, raw materials, 
and manufactured products is not more than 
half what it would be if the health of the back- 
ward races, which comprise roughly two-thirds 
of the population, could be lifted to the level 
of the health of the other third. 

[113] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

Statistics are lacking either to prove or to 
disprove this assertion, but such facts as one has 
to judge by make it appear probable that it 
may be even an under-statement. Among the 
backward races the death rates are incredibly 
high and the majority of those who do survive 
are seriously handicapped in labor by partial 
disability and impaired constitutions resulting 
from preventable disease. 

The rate of infant mortality in New York 
City is less than ten in a hundred. Among the 
backward races this rate is seldom below forty 
in a hundred and there are areas where only one 
infant in five lives to be a year old. The govern- 
ment tabulators estimated that India at the 
time of the last census would have shown an 
increase of population six and one half million 
in excess of the actual increases for ten years, 
had it not been for the ravages of plague. The 
records from 1891 to 1901 showed that the dura- 
tion of life for Indians is constantly growing 
shorter. The annual toll from tuberculosis among 
the billion people of Asia and Africa is doubtless 
much greater than the total loss of life in the 
European War. Premature death anywhere in 
the world may be translated directly into terms 
of economic loss in civilization. The child in 
South America or in Java has as definite an 
actual economic value as a potential producer 
as the child in America. 

But premature death, amazing as is its extent, 
does not impoverish civilization so much as does 

en*] 



THE MISSIONARY DOCTOR 

the permanent or partial disability of the living. 
India, for example, has twice as many blind 
people in proportion to the population as the 
United States, and in Russia blindness is even 
more common than in India. The blind popula- 
tion of the backward races is probably in excess 
of two million people. Tuberculosis, malaria, 
hookworm, and frequently venereal disease are 
the bane of tropical countries. These, aside 
from high death rates, bring, as every one knows, 
greatly lowered vitality for those who survive. 
It is estimated that no less than ninety per cent 
of the population of Java suffer from one or 
more of these preventable diseases. 

There is a popular impression that disease and 
early death are not unmixed disasters for Asia 
and Africa. Many people regard them as prov- 
idential arrangements to check or cure the evils 
of overpopulation. Why thwart the designs of 
Providence? While it is generally under stood 
that South America is underpopulated, it is 
assumed that Asia and Africa already have 
greater populations than the resources of the 
countries are able to sustain in prosperity. Such 
assumptions are not borne out by the facts. 
England is twice as thickly populated as India; 
Holland has almost five times as many people 
to the acre as China. There are vast tracts of 
land in India and China, as well as in Africa 
and Russia, which are still awaiting settlers. 
Indeed, China has more free public land for 
homesteads than has the United States. The 

[115] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

backward races are impoverished, not because 
the resources of their lands are meager, but be- 
cause these peoples do not profitably utilize the 
immense riches which they have. The back- 
ward races are weak because they do not produce 
enough; underproduction, not overpopulation, is 
the cause of their poverty. 

True, famine is an annual menace in Asia and 
Africa, but this is due not to overpopulation but 
to congestion of population in the superabundant 
areas, such as rich river valleys, where flood or 
sudden drought works sweeping havoc. As India 
extends her railway systems and her irrigation 
projects, famine disappears, for crops increase, 
while roads and railways make it possible to 
transfer food from place to place as the need 
arises. Owing to the present bad distribution of 
the population and the frightful congestion in 
restricted areas, a very large proportion of the 
people suffer from malnutrition, with a consequent 
lowering of vitality, increase of liability to dis- 
ease, and restriction of production. The remedy 
for such conditions is not an epidemic, but the 
development of transportation, diversification of 
labor, and better utilization of the natural re- 
sources. Many factors enter into the increasing 
of production, but first of all is the improvement 
of the health of the producer. 

In view of the present appalling destruction 
both of men and of materials in the European 
War, the present low productive capacities of the 
backward races become of especial interest. The 

[116] 



THE MISSIONARY DOCTOR 

world must replenish its supplies from some- 
where. A new era of manufacturing is just ahead. 
There will be an increasing demand for raw 
materials. In Europe more and more people 
will be withdrawn from agriculture and the pro- 
duction of raw materials and set at machines 
to produce manufactured goods. New railway 
systems already planned across Africa, Asia, and 
South America, together with the unmeasured 
tons of shipping now being produced, will make 
available to civilization to a degree as yet un- 
realized the resources now in the keeping of 
the backward races. Every continent will be 
called upon to produce more, to make a better 
use of its natural wealth. We shall then be face 
to face with the fact that this two-thirds of the 
world, which has thus far shared little in the 
benefits of advancing material civilization, is ill 
prepared to enter heartily into the international 
partnership of production. These races, not- 
withstanding the richness of their possessions, 
are impoverished, producing less than is required 
for their own needs. They have, taking all their 
needs together, no surplus whatever to share 
with the Western world or to use as a basis of 
exchange for manufactured products. 

The Western nations may build railways, open 
mines, introduce tractor plows and the modern 
science of agriculture, promote improved school 
systems and vocational training without limit, 
and yet these efforts to develop the backward 
races, not only for their own good but also for 

[117] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

the welfare of the world, will dismally fail of 
full efficiency unless there go with these efforts 
proportionate constructive measures for improv- 
ing the public health. 

One may urge the loss to civilization due to 
the high death rates and ill health of these peoples, 
without minimizing the humanitarian appeal of 
the incredible physical suffering which this large 
part of humanity is now silently bearing because 
of its ignorance of the laws of living. Together 
with the suffering goes a brutal callousness to 
human misery which bars the way to effective 
civilization. Democracy, or Christianity, can 
make little progress where human life is held 
cheap and the afflicted human body is in con- 
tempt. 

In the face of the present deplorable state of 
public health among the less favored races of 
the world, modern medical and surgical practice 
have an absolutely free field. A brief survey of 
the present measures for the promotion of public 
health in India, Malaysia, the Philippines, and 
China will show how very feasible is a Christian 
crusade for health in the backward races. The 
responsibilities for this movement are divided 
between the colonial health officer and the mis- 
sionary. The latter, including the missionary 
nurse as well as the doctor, must play a unique 
role. A glance at what has already been accom- 
plished suggests the wonderful possibilities of a 
usefulness which will be international as well 
as racial in its scope. 

[118] 



THE MISSIONARY DOCTOR 

The British Government keeps a corps of 
over 750 medical men, aside from many sanitary 
commissioners, in India. Originally the Medical 
Service was devised for the care of the British 
officers and their families and the native troops. 
The duties of these men have been gradually 
widened to include the general supervision of 
sanitation, the protection of water supplies, and 
the prevention of epidemic disease. Many a 
wanderer in India has cause to remember grate- 
fully the good offices of the "civil surgeon/' 
especially if he first has been led through the 
bazaar in search of a few liver pills. 

Although the British Government has made 
vast contributions to the cause of public health 
through its medical officers, through its labora- 
tories for the study of tropical diseases, and by 
its offices freely given to everyone in times of 
epidemic, it must be recognized that its policy 
has been more defensive than offensive. The 
truth is that no colonial government has yet 
entered aggressively into the field for the pro- 
motion of public health. Probably more has 
been done in the Philippines along these lines 
than in any other colony. 

The work of the Government in the care of 
health is supplemented by that of the missionary 
physician. In none of the British colonies does 
the missionary hospital receive government aid, 
such as is given to the mission school. The 
missionary, on the other hand, is so preoccupied 
with the pressing evangelistic and educational 

[119] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

needs that although mission work is supposed to 
rest on a tripod of church, school, and hospital, 
the hospital leg is often very much the shortest. 
In no missionary countries has medical work 
received the emphasis which its importance to 
civilization demands. 

The missionary doctor was not originally in- 
troduced among the backward races to care for 
matters of public health. He was merely a spe- 
cialized missionary, usually ordained, and pre- 
pared to expound a text as easily as to open an 
abdomen. Probably it would not be fair to liken 
his medical skill to the worm which covers the 
hook and yet it cannot be denied that his services 
were often offered as a bait to the curious. Per- 
haps one might better say that he was the Baptist 
who went ahead to prepare the way by disarming 
prejudice, making friends, and demonstrating the 
disinterested motives of the missionary. He was 
the classic proof to the people that the mission- 
ary seeks not yours but you. Furthermore, the 
introduction of the medical missionary repre- 
sented an advanced step in efficiency in the 
mission. He displaced the patent medicine and 
replaced the unprofessional ministrations of the 
missionary, who hitherto had always had to 
carry on his rounds a few drugs as well as tracts 
and a Bible. 

More recently the scope of the work of the 
medical missionary has greatly widened. He 
still retains his place in the mission hospital, 
and while the patients wait their turn in the 

[120] 




MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE HOS- 
PITAL ITSELF IS THE IDEAL WHICH 
IS BEING INTRODUCED INTO THE 

EASTERN WORLD THE INTELLIGENT 

CONSERVATION OF HUMAN LIFE. 
THE LOWERING OF INFANT MORTAL- 
ITY MARKS THE GROWTH OF THE 
EASTERN NATIONS TOWARD THE 
IDEALS OF SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY 
WHICH UNDERLIE SELF-GOVERN- 
MENT. 



THE MISSIONARY DOCTOR 

dispensary the preacher and the Bible woman 
preach to them. But as the doctor operates he 
is surrounded by a circle of students who will 
some day be either nurses or doctors on their 
own account. The aim of the mission is to make 
the practice of modern medicine and surgery 
indigenous. In the hospital and in the medical 
school, which is often very primitive, as well as 
by itinerating trips through the villages, the 
doctor multiplies his influence far beyond the 
circle of his personal contacts, but in his place 
as professional adviser in matters of public 
health he is now in a way to make his largest 
contributions to the new age. 

The Dutch Government in Malaysia has re- 
cently embarked upon an interesting experiment, 
in which it has made the proposition to an Amer- 
ican missionary board that the Government will 
finance the erection of nine hospitals and bear 
three-fourths of the cost of the salaries for phy- 
sician, nurse, and several native nurses if only 
the mission board will supply the doctor and 
nurse. Up until the present time Holland has 
given very little attention to the health of her 
subject races. 

Manila fares rather better than most Oriental 
cities in the matter of health conditions, as one 
can readily see from the fact that the city an- 
nually reports an excess of births over deaths 
of several in a thousand, whereas Singapore, 
Madras, and Bombay report an actual excess of 
deaths over births of from fifteen to twenty in 

[121] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

a thousand. Nevertheless the United States 
Government found conditions far from ideal — so 
bad in fact that they yielded only stubbornly 
to improvement. In the year 1902, during an 
epidemic, about three-fifths of all children under 
one year of age died. At that time the general 
rate was about three and one half times as high 
as in New York City. The normal death rate 
in the Philippines at the time of the American 
occupation was, omitting cholera years, about 
eighty-two per cent higher than in the United 
States. The average duration of life for the 
Filipino was about two -thirds the average in 
the United States. 

The Government launched upon what is prob- 
ably the most extensive campaign for public 
health ever inaugurated in Asia. Beginning 
with Manila and reaching out as far into the 
smaller cities and barrios as was possible, measures 
both for the prevention of disease and for the 
promotion of health were introduced. Pure 
water supplies were developed to replace shallow 
wells and contaminated springs; laws dealing 
with pure food, pure drugs, and pure milk were 
introduced; sewer systems were constructed; a 
system of quarantine was established, and the 
subject of health was made a part of the study 
in the public schools. Meanwhile a magnificent 
government hospital was built in Manila, with 
a training school for nurses, and the University 
of the Philippines began the training of doctors 
on an extensive scale. As a direct result of these 

[122] 



THE MISSIONARY DOCTOR 

measures of sanitation, education, and better 
care of the sick, the death rate in Manila in a 
dozen years was reduced from more than forty- 
five in a thousand to less than twenty-five. 
Manila now has a death rate not greatly in 
excess of many American cities in the northern 
tier of states. 

The Government in the Philippines has con- 
ducted its health campaign so energetically and 
on such a large scale that there has been less 
need for the missionary doctor there than in 
most countries where missionaries are at work, 
although there is still a place for the mission 
hospital in the Philippines. The remarkable suc- 
cess of the work indicates something of the possi- 
bilities for the conservation of life in Asia when 
the work is undertaken with skill and energy. 

China is now undergoing an awakening of 
interest in public health in which the missionary 
is the leader. In the new republic the mission- 
ary has the unique place of being responsible for 
most of the good impulses and few of the bad 
ones. Nowhere is he rendering a more effective 
service than in this matter of the prevention of 
disease. Although the Government does not sub- 
sidize the mission hospital except in the single 
instance of the Yale Mission at Changsha, where 
the subsidy is given in an indirect way such as 
the Chinese love to travel, there is very close 
cooperation everywhere between the Government 
and the missionary doctor. Sometimes the co- 
operation is with more zeal than knowledge. 

[123] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

The older generation which is now passing off 
the stage is still proud and yields its established 
precedence grudgingly. 

Fenchow, North China, recently had an epi- 
demic of diphtheria. There were available only 
two western-trained medical men, Dr. Percy T. 
Granger, the American Board physician, and his 
Chinese assistant, Dr. Ma. They telegraphed 
the government Board of Health in Peking, 
requesting that the local health officials be asked 
to cooperate in checking the epidemic. Peking 
responded through the proper channels, order- 
ing the local authorities to give every possible 
cooperation. The magistrate disposed of the 
matter at once by having posted all over the 
city an official proclamation, prepared in con- 
sultation with the Chinese doctors, which offered 
the following prescription: 

"Use Women's Toenails, Bamboo Pith, and Bed- 
bugs, Grind to a Powder and Sprinkle in the 
Throat/' 

If the traveler has the patience and the grit 
he may find his way to the city of Yenping, 
China. To get there from Shanghai he will 
have to brave the typhoons of the China Sea, 
visit the hotel-less city of Foochow, take a sampan 
at midnight, trans-ship to a rickety and infested 
launch at three a. m., endure its discomforts for 
twelve hours, and then spend several days in 
another sampan which often has to be pulled 

[ 124 ] 



THE MISSIONARY DOCTOR 

through the rapids of the Mintu River by coolies. 
One will find a city perched on a cliff at the con- 
fluence of two rivers which reach back into the 
mountains where few foreigners, except a half 
dozen missionaries, ever go. The province of 
Fukien is like an island encircled by a forbidding 
coast line on one side and by brigand-haunted 
mountains in the rear. One would expect it to 
be a most favorable spot in which to study China 
as it is when untouched by any foreign influence. 
On the contrary, Yenping is in the van of Chinese 
progress. 

An anti-foreign outbreak swept over this part 
of China about twenty years ago, and several 
missionaries were murdered, but the missions 
persisted in extending themselves into the coun- 
try and eventually built a station at Yenping, 
erecting a hospital as well as schools and churches. 
The hospital is a ramshackle affair, which will 
probably some day fall in a crash unless it is 
rebuilt. The operating room is crude and the 
doctor uses flour bags for towels. However, the 
institution has, in an area of 3,600 square miles, 
no rivals with which to suffer in comparison. 
It is the sole modern agency ministering to the 
health of 700,000 people in the two river valleys, 
and the people respect it so much that though 
revolutions come and go through the gates of 
the city, the hospital is always protected. \ 

A few years ago the taotai (mayor) came to 
Dr. James E. Skinner, the physician in charge, 
and asked his advice, concerning not his own 

[125] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

personal health or that of his family, but the 
public health of the city. What could be done 
to improve the health conditions? Dr. Skinner 
pointed out how the filthy condition of the 
streets facilitated the spread of disease and ex- 
plained how every American city has a street- 
cleaning brigade. Immediately a street-cleaning 
department was organized and set in operation 
at Yenping. Then the doctor took the magis- 
trate out and showed him where the city was 
drawing its water from contaminated sources. 
He explained how western cities protect their 
water, even bringing it long distances from the 
mountains to insure pure and ample supplies. 
Yenping immediately started the development of 
a new water supply under the direction of the 
medical missionary. At length the doctor ap- 
proached the most difficult problem. "How 
about all these unburied coffins?" he inquired. 

It is the custom in China to delay burial until 
the astrologer can name an auspicious day and 
place. The result of this custom of delayed burial 
is that China is cluttered up with an enormous 
number of unburied coffins. One finds them in 
backyards, by the roadsides, and in every field. 
The doctor explained how dangerous to public 
health were those unburied coffins in Yenping. 
The magistrate had a census taken and discovered 
16,000 of them, the population of the city being 
only about 25,000. 

The disposal of this obstacle to modern progress 
was a delicate question. The official recognized 

[ 126 ] 



THE MISSIONARY DOCTOR 

the necessity for the removal of the coffins, but 
he might easily proceed in such a way as to bring 
the entire city down about his ears. But the 
Chinese are clever in such situations, perhaps 
the cleverest people on earth. It would not do 
to attack the validity of the astrologer's judg- 
ment nor to blast away the solid rock of Chinese 
traditions and sentiment, but it was entirely 
within his province to levy taxes. Indeed the 
Chinese magistrate exists by virtue of that pre- 
rogative. Forthwith he issued a proclamation 
fixing a tax of fifty cents on all unburied coffins. 
The Chinese may be superstitious, but they are 
even more thrifty. There is a vein of the Anglo- 
Saxon in them. They do not like to permit reli- 
gious sentiment to interfere with business. There- 
fore Yenping cast astrology aside for a while 
and devoted itself to funerals at the rate of a 
thousand a week. Today this little, isolated 
Chinese city in the wilds of Fukien is on the 
road to health. 

About the same time that Yenping was being 
invaded by a mission hospital, one of the gentry 
from Nanchang, the provincial capital of Kiangsi, 
.paid a visit to Kiukiang on the Yangtze River. 
At that time this entire province was closed to 
foreigners and the proud city of Nanchang was 
quite outside the currents of modern progress. 
But the wife of this gentleman was ill and he 
had heard that there were two Chinese girls in 
Kiukiang who had recently returned from the 
study of Western medicine as it is practiced in 

[127] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

Ann Arbor. These girls had been adopted as 
babies by a missionary, Miss Gertrude Howe, 
educated as her own children, and were now at 
work in the Methodist Hospital for Women in 
Kiukiang. At the conclusion of his tour of in- 
spection, this member of the gentry implored 
the mission to send one of the young lady physi- 
cians to Nanchang to cure his wife. Dr. Ida 
Kahn accepted his invitation, became the guest 
of the Chinese family, found the lady suffering 
from hysteria, and cured her, as she says, by 
mental suggestion. Nanchang, however, re- 
mained unmoved, complacent, reactionary. 

Dr. Kahn decided to remain in Nanchang 
and start a hospital. The first months were 
tempestuous. One day she was stoned and 
mobbed, because she thoughtlessly ventured to 
ride through the streets of the city in an un- 
covered sedan chair. Nanchang folk would not 
tolerate such lapses from feminine propriety. 
But at length the gentry came and offered her 
several thousand piculs of grain, which she sold 
and with the money purchased land for a dis- 
pensary. They wanted her to have the property 
deeded in her name, but she dismissed their 
arguments with the concise reply that such a 
course would be foolish in view of the fact that 
she could not live forever. Then they tempted 
her with promises of generous aid if only she 
would cut loose from the mission and from 
Christianity. Dr. Kahn refused the offer and 
continued her work. 

[128] 




THE PRODUCTIVE CAPACITY OF 
THE WORLD WOULD DOUBTLESS BE 
DOUBLED IF THE HEALTH OF THE 
BACKWARD RACES COULD BE LIFTED 
TO THE LEVEL OF THE HEALTH OF 
THE OTHER THIRD OF THE WORLD'S 
POPULATION. TWO-THIRDS OF THE 
WORLD SUFFERS FROM SUCH MALNU- 
TRITION AND PHYSICAL WEAKNESS 
AS CREATE LARGE LIABILITY TO 
TUBERCULOSIS AND PLAGUES. 



i 



THE MISSIONARY DOCTOR 

In fifteen years, during which time the doctor 
had been receiving a salary of perhaps three 
hundred dollars each year, Dr. Kahn built up 
a magnificent hospital, the only one for women 
in an entire province, and trained a great many 
nurses and assistants. Two years ago the Tientsin 
Women's Hospital, a municipal institution in 
which the Government and the gentry share 
expenses, invited Dr. Kahn to become its super- 
intendent. When I visited Nanchang last year 
I found a municipal board of health, a uniformed 
street-cleaning department equipped with buckets 
of unslacked lime for sprinkling the streets, and 
a mission doctor giving his services to the city 
in the work of free vaccination. One may gather 
anywhere in China similar illustrations of how 
eagerly the Chinese respond to the introduction 
of modern methods of curing and of preventing 
disease. 

The Chinese make excellent physicians and 
especially skilful surgeons because of their dex- 
terity in the use of the hands. Miss Lin Hie-Ding 
came to the United States eight years ago deter- 
mined to become a doctor. She was so successful 
that she was eventually made chief interne in a 
Chicago hospital. There she perfected a new 
method of inducing twilight sleep, which she 
used one hundred and ninety times with entire 
success. One day a little Chinese boy was brought 
to her with a bad case of tonsilitis. Dr. Lin 
recommended an operation to remove adenoids 
and explained 'to the scandalized relatives how it 

[129] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

could be accomplished. When they hesitated the 
doctor opened her own mouth and showed them 
how she had once submitted to a similar opera- 
tion. The family did not like the idea of having 
their boy's throat cut, but at length agreed. 
Very joyfully the boy was received back into 
the bosom of his family the very afternoon after 
the operation had been performed. One day a 
few months later Dr. Lin found her reception 
room fairly crowded with the boy's family, rela- 
tives, and neighbors from Chinatown. What 
did they all want? 

They reported that while the boy had for- 
merly been a very disagreeable member of the 
family, quarrelsome and irritable, and stupid 
in school, his disposition was now completely 
changed and he was doing remarkably well in 
school. The family had talked it over and the 
entire neighborhood was now agreed that if 
that Foochow girl at the hospital could effect 
such marvelous changes in disposition and men- 
tal powers for the boy, they ought every one 
to come and apply for treatment. Would Dr. 
Lin please cut their throats in a similar way? 
When Dr. Lin returned to establish a hospital 
for women in her own land, she took with her 
many hundreds of dollars' worth of drugs and 
instruments, the gifts of her Chinese friends in 
Chicago, to help launch the new venture. 

During a recent tour of China which carried 
me far off the beaten paths, I did not enter a 
single city which did not already have a street- 

[130] 



THE MISSIONARY DOCTOR 

cleaning department and a board of health, or at 
least a health association. Dr. W. W. Peter, 
lecturer on public health for the Young Men's 
Christian Association, is largely responsible for 
this amazing situation. For several years Dr. 
Peter has given himself exclusively to the stim- 
ulation of Chinese interest in public health. 
His methods are picturesque and peculiarly 
adapted to a land of literati and illiterates. Dr. 
Peter arranges it so that he visits the city at the 
invitation of the gentry and of the official classes. 
His coming is attended with much ceremony. 
The schools are closed to permit the pupils to 
attend. The largest temple or hall in the city 
is rented. Dr. Peter, under the patronage of 
the Minister of the Interior, even invaded the 
Forbidden City at Peking and gave forty-six 
lectures. Admission is by ticket only. An 
American press agent for a circus could teach 
Dr. Peter nothing about the uses of publicity. 

The lectures themselves are unique. They are 
visual, rather than verbal, presenting the facts 
as to China's sad plight in the matter of sickness 
by means of pantomimes and mechanical toys 
which offer to the audience numerous oppor- 
tunities for laughter. A laugh is half the battle 
in China. Dr. Peter shows his audiences how 
the people die of tuberculosis: a toy man walks 
out of a toy house and falls into a toy coffin 
every thirty-seven seconds. Blocks jump out of 
a table to show the relative density of population 
in the various countries of the world. A coolie 

[131] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

appears bowed down to the ground with bundles, 
each bearing the name of one of the common 
Chinese ailments. He cannot run a race with 
Japan, he cannot build railways, schools, or ships 
because he has to carry this heavy load. "This 
represents sick China," says Dr. Peter. One 
by one the burdens are lifted and carried be- 
hind the curtain. At length Dr. Peter says, 
"Now see how fine China can be when she puts 
all these burdens under her feet." The curtains 
in the rear are parted and a young Chinese 
athlete appears standing on the packs arranged 
in the form of a pyramid. The athlete waves 
the Christian flag and the audience applauds. 

Dr. Peter has been holding these series of 
lectures throughout China and has already ad- 
dressed more than 65,000 people. Peking is 
now building a magnificent government hospital, 
which is to serve as a model for the development 
of similar institutions throughout the republic. 
It stands next to the Temple of the Imperial 
Ancestors, which Yuan Shih Kai had refurnished 
with the expectation that some day his tablet 
would be added to its walls. Now Dr. Wu 
Lien-tu of the government hospital openly boasts 
that some day the temple will become an annex 
to the new hospital. Such a disposal of the 
sacred building is quite possible. The Chinese 
are a very practical people and they have very 
little sentiment about temples. 

About three years ago the China Medical 
Board was created, under the auspices of the 

[132] 



THE MISSIONARY DOCTOR 

Rockefeller Foundation, "to promote the gradual 
and orderly development of a comprehensive and 
efficient system of medicine in China." While 
not a denominational enterprise, the work initi- 
ated and contemplated makes it the most mag- 
nificent piece of broadly missionary work yet 
undertaken in the history of the world. The 
general method for the work is to aid missionary 
institutions, undertake direct medical education, 
and supply fellowships and scholarships as may 
be required. 

The organization of the Peking Union Medical 
College, under the China Medical Board, has 
already been completed and Dr. Franklin C. 
McLain, formerly of the Rockefeller Institution 
of Medical Research, is physician in chief. The 
Peking Union Medical College is really the 
medical college of the united missions of Peking, 
taken over and reorganized. In the same way 
the Red Cross Hospital and the Harvard Med- 
ical School in Shanghai are becoming the founda- 
tion of a second medical college, similar to that 
at Peking. Eventually this system of medical 
schools will probably be widely extended. 

The teaching is to be done in English. In 
addition to these institutions directly under the 
care of the China Medical Board, liberal subsidies 
have been made to missionary institutions like 
the Yale Hospital at Changsha and the Shantung 
Christian University at Tsinan-fu, and arrange- 
ments have been made with some others to assist 
in carrying forward more efficiently the instruc- 

[133] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

tion of medical students through the medium of 
the Chinese language. The total appropriation 
for this work has equalled about $5,000,000. 

The China Medical Board is setting far higher 
standards of medical education than the missions 
have ever been able, with their limited support, 
to attain. The missions are thereby placed under 
the necessity of greatly increasing their efficiency. 
Furthermore, the China Medical Board is very 
exacting in its requirements as to quality of 
work done, before it offers any subsidy to the 
missions. The entrance of the China Medical 
Board has revealed in a bold way the present 
inadequacy and inefficiency of existing hospitals 
and medical schools and is likely to be a great 
stimulus to the missions in improving the quality 
of their service. 

The most recent mission statistics indicate 
that there are now over 700 mission hospitals 
scattered over the world and over 1,200 dis- 
pensaries. Over 1,000 missionary doctors, a 
third of whom are women, are ministering to 
the needs of countless patients. They are as- 
sisted by more than 500 foreign trained nurses, 
230 native physicians, and about 2,000 native 
assistants, both men and women. Great as is 
the work already established, the fact that only 
one missionary in every twenty-five is a doctor 
shows very clearly that the magnitude of the 
task of conservation of human life in backward 
races has not yet fully gripped the imagination 
of the Christian Church. 

[134] 



THE MISSIONARY DOCTOR 

In reality the missionary doctor is an equal 
copartner with the missionary schoolmaster and 
the missionary preacher. The work undertaken 
by the three is a unity. The omission of any one 
phase of the work means that to that degree the 
full message of Christianity is undelivered. It 
is not sufficient merely to preach the Gospel to 
peoples who are ignorant. The Gospel must be 
applied in visual demonstration before the stranger 
can comprehend the full dimensions of its mean- 
ing. The missionary doctor is the incorporation 
of one very essential element in Christianity, the 
ministry of intelligent mercy. He exemplifies 
the humanitarian ideal which has been the 
saving salt in Western civilization. A race of 
people who lack an appreciation of that ideal 
as it is applied to the infant, the aged, the de- 
fective, and the afflicted can make little progress 
along any intellectual or spiritual line. The 
new industrialism of the West, which is now 
invading the backward nations with motor power 
and labor-saving machinery, creates an addi- 
tional urgency for the introduction of the humani- 
tarian ideal. Western civilization, as typified by 
blast furnaces and cotton mills, without the 
Christian valuation of human life, would mul- 
tiply rather than retrieve the present miseries 
of these races. 

There are indications that the era following 
the War will be marked by the greatest mission- 
ary propaganda among the backward races 
which the world will ever have known. It is to 

I 135 ] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

be hoped that the new program will be marked 
by no less missionary zeal than has characterized 
the work in the past, for it is abundantly demon- 
strated that a man or woman must have the 
fire of an apostle or his enthusiasm will run 
cold after a few years in such depressing sur- 
roundings. On the other hand, it is certain that 
the work of the missionary will take on a broad- 
ened purpose and a truer perspective. The mis- 
sionary has already introduced the humanitarian 
ideal. Building on that foundation, he has be- 
fore him the opportunity to render not merely 
a humanitarian but also an international service 
in setting standards for the conservation of hu- 
man life. Meanwhile he is sowing for an im- 
mense harvest of good will toward the white 
race, which may yet become a highly valued 
negotiable commodity in the marts of the world. 



[136] 



THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN 



CHAPTER VII 
THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN 

A mass meeting was called in Yokohama in 
the interests of the Young Women's Christian 
Association. The chairman proved an unfor- 
tunate selection, his opening remarks being de- 
cidedly off key. He took the attitude that it is 
the sole duty of Japanese women to remain in 
their homes and be obedient to their husbands 
and fathers as their mothers were. No one who 
was there will ever forget how Miss Michi Kawaii, 
recently returned from college in the United 
States, stepped out to answer him. For thirty- 
five minutes she gave the chairman a very cour- 
teous and equally indignant response. 

"You say that we Japanese women are cute 
and sweet," she exclaimed. "So are cats and 
dogs for that matter. But we notice that when 
American men come over here it is your servants 
and geishas whom you bring out to entertain 
them. These men do not see any decent Japanese 
ladies. Then they go home and tell what kind 
of women you have in Japan. You ought to be 
ashamed of yourselves." And from all accounts, 
the chairman was, for the audience fairly rattled 
the windows with applause. 

There is no denying that a spirit of rebellion 
is moving among Japanese women, 

[ 139 ] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

Madam Hiroaka of Osaka, a member of the 
wealthy Mitsui family, is easily one of the half- 
dozen leading women of the Orient. She is 
reported to be the richest woman in Japan, but 
is more famed for the fact that after her husband's 
death many years ago she gave herself to the 
personal management of her large business and 
property interests. She has been a bank di- 
rector and one of the organizers of an insurance 
company. She has coal mines in Japan and 
also in Korea. Some years ago when the great 
Mitsui Department Store in Tokyo was going 
on the rocks she was the one selected to pull 
the concern off. With her marvelous executive 
ability and her woman's sense, she overhauled, 
reorganized, and put it on a paying basis. Now 
she has turned over her business affairs to her 
son-in-law and is devoting herself to social re- 
form and to the spreading of Christianity. Madam 
Hiroaka is by temperament a reformer, even a 
radical. 

One walks straight into the Hiroaka home 
without having to remove the shoes and is ushered 
directly into a European drawing-room furnished 
in brown and yellow plush. Madam Hiroaka 
enters and greets one with directness. She wears 
European clothing. We do not sit on the floor. 
This lady is not to be unnecessarily impeded by 
any obstacles of dress or of national custom. 
Indeed it is rumored that she would be more 
popular among Japanese women if only she would 
be a little more compromising in her adoption 

[140] 



THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN 

of Western ideas. Madam Hiroaka is not of the 
compromising sort. 

"No," she replied, emphatically, "there is no 
danger in this woman movement. Only a few 
women are advancing too fast and they are not 
really advancing. They are going back to the 
animal stage, free love, and all that sort of non- 
sense." 

The week I called upon her all Japan was 
agog with the scandal of an attempted murder 
committed by a university girl on her male 
companion, a freelance journalist of Tokyo. 
"Of course such women do damage, but the 
average Japanese does not go to extremes in 
anything." Then Madam Hiroaka went on to 
describe how she had become interested in various 
reform movements for women. 

"And how did you happen to become a Chris- 
tian?" 

"I wanted women to be good and wanted 
to help them to improve their lot," she replied 
tersely. "I found that I could not accomplish 
what I desired without religion. That con- 
clusion sent me to study religion from the woman's 
point of view. I found that there is no hope 
for women in any of the religions of the Orient. 
They teach that from the cradle to the grave 
women are inferior to men. They regard women 
as evil. The Confucian system of ethics, for 
example, teaches that fools and women cannot 
be educated. A woman cannot be a 'heavenly 
creature/ It teaches that it is better to see a 

[141] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

snake than a woman, for the latter arouses 
passion. Japanese women have been so long 
oppressed by this kind of teaching that they 
no longer stop to ask why. They are afraid, 
like slaves. 

"Then I began to read the Bible. I did not 
like some parts of it any better than I liked the 
religions of the East. I did not see why any 
woman should call her husband, 'Lord and 
Master/ Saint Paul made me very angry. He 
was an old bachelor; any one can see that. He 
didn't know much about women. But Peter? 
He was fine. He had a wife, he understood 
women. One can see that from his epistles. 
When I read the gospels I found that Jesus made 
no distinction between the sexes. I liked that. 
We are all, women as well as men, children of 
God. I came to the conclusion that the only 
hope for the women of the Orient to attain their 
true position is through Christianity." 

For the last three years Madam Hiroaka, 
accompanied by her vaiet, has been going up 
and down the Empire, preaching Christianity, 
with the zeal of a crusader. She is a most effective 
campaigner, not merely because of her novel 
approach to the subject, but because of the 
innate force and mastery of her personality. 

The late William Elroy Curtis was fond of 
saying, after his return from a journalistic tour 
through Turkey, that the two progressive forces 
then at work for the opening up of that Empire 
were Christian missions and French novels in 

[142] 



THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN 

the harems. Likewise it may be said that there 
are more forces than Christianity at work for 
the emancipation of Oriental women, but in list- 
ing those influences one cannot forget that Chris- 
tianity is first. Professor Nitobe, who has just 
accepted the presidency of the new Union 
Christian College for girls in Tokyo, explained 
to me the relation of the woman movement and 
Christianity in Japan in this way: 

"Hitherto in the East personality has received 
very little emphasis. We have thought in terms 
of the group. Probably most men would admit 
that there is such a thing as personality, but 
they would also assert that it is entirely mas- 
culine. Women, they would say, have none. 
Their place in our economy has been entirely 
derivative, never independent. They have been 
merely members of the domestic circle, a daughter, 
a wife, a mother, a widow. Christianity cuts 
directly across this idea, laying stress upon indi- 
vidual responsibility and freedom. Christianity 
has, therefore, given us a new valuation of 
women." 

One has only to go to Manila to see the truth 
of this statement. In fact, the status of the 
Filipino woman, although this is not generally 
recognized, is one of the greatest apologetics for 
Christianity in the Orient. One often hears 
people say that the missionary ought to stay at 
home, that Christianity is not for the Orient. 
They forget that Christianity is itself an Oriental 
religion; they forget also that it has been in the 

[143] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

Orient for centuries. Francis Xavier carried it 
out there long before the Mayflower put out 
from Plymouth. After many vicissitudes Chris- 
tianity took root in the Philippines and for 
centuries Manila, in spite of the unprogressive 
Spanish influence, has been a Christian capital 
in Asia. 

The Filipino woman, today, is so far in advance 
of her other Oriental sisters in freedom, social 
position, and independence, that she is in a class 
by herself. There is some seclusion, but it is 
that of the convent, not that of the purdah 
which other Oriental women know. The Filipino 
woman holds the family purse, but she does 
more than that: she is the business agent of 
the family. She keeps the shop, holds the prop- 
erty, and carries to a very large degree the business 
responsibility of the Islands. Nowhere else in the 
Orient will one find a woman lawyer practicing 
at the bar and writing suffrage articles for the 
daily papers. One cannot account for the Filipino 
woman on the ground of the racial superiority 
of the Malay. Ordinarily the Malay is the 
weakest blood in the Orient, the least progressive. 
The entrance of the United States into the 
Islands brought increased liberty and freedom, 
but the only way to explain the unique place 
which the Filipino woman occupies in the East 
is to recognize that for centuries before the 
American occupation the people were being 
taught a Christian valuation of womanhood. 

At the risk of making an odious comparison 
[144] 




THIS LITTLE GIRL WAS SOLD BY 
HER MOTHER INTO SLAVERY. AFTER 
THE INITIAL PAYMENT HAD BEEN 
MADE THE FATHER DISCOVERED THE 
FATE IN PROSPECT FOR THE CHILD, 
REPAID THE MONEY, AND OBTAINED 
POSSESSION OF HIS DAUGHTER, 
WHOM HE PLACED IN A MISSION 
SCHOOL. 



THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN 

I should say that the status of Oriental women 
is to be graded in the following order: Filipino, 
Japanese, Chinese, Malay, and Indian. At the 
same time one must remember that the word 
Indian is too loose a term to apply to the women 
of India. The Parsee woman, for example, al- 
though she represents an infinitesimal fraction of 
the Indian sisterhood, has long held a position 
quite equal to that of the Filipino, and possibly 
even superior to it. 

One must speak with caution of a feminine 
rebellion outside of the Philippines and Japan. 
Yet we can notice how in China women are 
beginning to come into their own. Although 
the indemnity funds were first applied exclusively 
to boys, three years ago a group of girls were 
sent to the United States and the authorities 
are so satisfied with the experiment that other 
similar groups will follow. It is interesting to 
note, by the way, that practically every indemnity 
girl already sent is a Christian and many of 
them are daughters of Chinese Christian preach- 
ers. Aside, however, from the few Chinese 
women who have been born and reared in the 
port cities, one will have to travel far in China 
to find emancipated Chinese women, except as 
that new liberty has come to them through the 
missions. But one will find plenty of high-spirited 
feminists among the returned girl students and 
in the mission schools. Never have I heard a 
more brilliant speech from a woman than one 
made by Mrs. Mei, a graduate of Barnard College, 

[145] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

at the returned students' banquet in Shanghai 
last year. Her remarks were addressed largely 
to her brother returned students, who so quickly 
forget the high ideals of women's place in so- 
ciety which they have learned in America. The 
speech was brilliant, and withering. 

But China adjusts herself slowly to new ideals 
of womanhood. I made it a point, while travel- 
ing about China, whenever I interviewed a high 
official, such as a provincial governor or a taotai, 
to compliment him on the progress that the 
Government is making in its program of educa- 
tion for women. Not once did I meet with an 
enthusiastic response. I know of one city where 
a governor paid an official visit to inspect a 
government girls' school and the next day sent 
chairs and invitations to some of the more comely 
girls to bring them to his yamen for no very 
lovely purpose. 

Some of the greatest tragedies associated with 
the spread of Christianity and western ideals in 
China are due to the fact that the Chinese women 
move, or are allowed to move, so much more 
slowly than the men. A brilliant young Chinese 
student from a distinguished family comes to 
the United States to finish his education. Ac- 
cording to Chinese custom he is betrothed, long 
before he has passed through the Chinese schools, 
to a girl whom he has never seen. In America 
he sees the western ideals of marriage, the free 
choice of bride and groom, the years of acquaint- 
ance which precede marriage, and comes to the 

[146] 



THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN 

conviction that he cannot marry the fiancee in 
China. He writes to his father begging that a 
release be arranged. In old China such action 
would cause immense scandal, and the father 
belongs to old China. He cannot accede to the 
son's request. The son also refuses to yield. 
At length the father cables that he himself is 
very ill and wishes to see his son before he dies. 
The son hastens home, to find not only that the 
illness has been feigned, but that the plans for 
the wedding are all made. The whole weight 
of Chinese social code falls upon the back of the 
young student and the marriage takes place. 

The bride is brought to the United States and 
placed in school, with the hope that she may 
prepare herself to take her place in a home which 
will have to adopt Western standards. She 
fails to realize the gulf which she must cross 
and in a short time it becomes absolutely evident 
that the marriage is a sheer impossibility. The 
groom rebels and refuses to bind himself to 
partnership with one who is so widely separated 
from him in ideals and attainments. There is a 
divorce, a scandal in China, and the young man 
remarries, this time selecting as the bride of his 
own choice a girl whose training has been similar 
to his own. 

That is a true story. I could tell a dozen similar 
ones, although in some of the other cases the 
husband's life is quite ruined when he returns 
to his affianced bride, only to find that she has 
absolutely refused to accept education or other 

[147] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

opportunities for improvement and is nothing 
more than a menial servant. On the other hand 
I know of a brilliant young man, a Christian, 
who, finding himself thus unequally yoked with 
a bride in whose selection he had no choice, 
accepted the conditions, took his bride to his 
own European house, and bravely carried out 
the tragic part assigned to him by a social sys- 
tem which yields only an inch at a time, always 
grudgingly. 

When the Chinese emigrate to the Straits 
they are likely to relax their loyalty to these 
old conventions. I attended in Singapore a wed- 
ding where the groom, a graduate of the Anglo- 
Chinese College, had so far imbibed Western 
ideals of women that he had urged his suit for 
five years, pleading with the girl on his knees 
before she would accept him. 

Five hundred women attended the meeting of 
the Hindu National Congress in Lucknow in 
1917. Two hundred women led the singing; Mrs. 
Naidau, wife of the court physician to His High- 
ness the Nizam of Hyderabad, a poetess of note, 
moved the resolution asking the British Govern- 
ment to rescind its law forbidding Indians to 
carry firearms. Only ten years ago these things 
would have been quite impossible. 

Most amazing of all is the fact that the next 
Hindu National Congress actually elected a 
woman, Mrs. Annie Besant, as president. In 
measuring Mrs. Besant's strange and sinister 
influence on Indian politics in the Home Rule 

[148] 



THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN 

agitation, one must not overlook the fact that 
her greatest significance lies in the fact that she, 
a woman, won a place of superiority and leader- 
ship among a great number of people who have 
always assigned woman to a place of inferiority 
and seclusion. There is a general feeling in 
India that the springs of inspiration for the present 
Home Rule agitation are to be found among the 
women, even though the purdah hangs between 
them and the public eye. At any rate it is a well 
known fact that many of the leading women of 
India who have renounced the purdah are under 
police surveillance and their free movement from 
province to province is proscribed. The most 
radical sentiments with reference to Home Rule 
which I have heard uttered were from women. 

Just how strong the feminist sentiment is in 
India would be hard to define, for India is the 
land of the purdah and of mystery. That it 
grows slowly is evidenced by the following letter 
recently addressed to the Hindu Social Reformer 
and published in its columns: 

"We are and always shall be called a backward 
race till we properly appreciate the right of 
Indian womanhood. Till we admit them to their 
proper position. We deny them the simple rights 
of human beings and how and when are we going 
to realize that they are veritable goddesses on 
earth? It is no use our bragging about our progress 
till the Indian woman has even a single com- 
plaint against us to make before God! Brother 
readers, my dear co-religionists, if you ever wish 

[149] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

to take your proper place in the committee of 
nations, stop all the shameful injustice you are 
dealing out to your noble sisters. For God's sake 
bestow thought upon the condition of the Hindu 
widows! Your indulging in political homilies, 
your assuming airs in the national press, your 
passing before the world as wronged innocents, 
all will be of no avail. There is justice in God's 
Kingdom! And ye shall get it if ye deserve. 
His mercy endureth forever for those that de- 
serve it. May you try your best to deserve 
even a particle of it. 

Yours truly, 

S. S. Bhat." 

The part which the missions are playing in 
India in the emancipation of women is a brilliant 
story. Unfortunately few of the incidents which 
illustrate the character of the influence can be 
told. I have sat by the hour in breathless interest 
listening as women missionaries and their assist- 
ants told of what happens behind the purdah, 
only to be solemnly sworn at the end of each 
tale not to divulge enough of the facts to make 
the story worth repeating. The Indian, whether 
he be Hindu or Mohammedan, is extremely 
sensitive on the subject of his treatment of 
women. He feels that the missionary has mis- 
represented his case. The missionary knows, on 
the other hand, that to publish what she knows 
would immediately close the door of the zenana 
and make the continuance of her work all but 
impossible. I have purposely drawn Indian 

[150] 




THE SOCIAL ORDER OF THE IN- 
DIAN VILLAGE IS REVEALED IN THE 
STATUS OF ITS WOMEN. THERE ARE 
INDICATIONS THAT THE CLOSE OF 
THE WAR WILL MARK THE OPENING 
OF A NEW ERA FOR THE WOMEN 
OF THE EAST AS WELL AS OF THE 
WEST. 



THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN 

gentlemen into a discussion of the place of women 
and argued with them even hotly for the sake 
of bringing out their best defense. At length 
one comes to the point where our premises are 
irreconcilable. The average Indian has the un- 
shaken conviction that woman is essentially an 
inferior creature. He is possessor, protector, and 
lord. 

It must be admitted that there is a certain 
basis in truth for his contention, so far as it 
relates to his race. The Indian woman has been 
imprisoned for centuries, suppressed, and re- 
pressed. This heritage from the past has left 
its mark on the woman of today. The purdah 
is a protection which, in the present estate of 
Indian women, it is not very desirable to remove. 
Before Indian womanhood can be emancipated it 
must be fortified with education and with new 
ideals. Only one per cent of the women of all 
India are literate even in the vernacular. The 
Government, thus far, has been content to allow 
the Indian to set the pace in women's education. 
Consequently the pace is a very slow one. Sir 
James Meston, Lieutenant Governor of the 
United Provinces, assured me that he, for one, 
had come now to believe that the Government 
must change its policy and begin very definitely 
to promote the education of girls. 

One who has been out in the Indian villages 

and observed the low position of women in the 

j average household, and with that fresh in his 

memory comes to such an institution as the 

[151] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

Isabella Thoburn College for girls in Lucknow, 
must leave the compound with a feeling of elation. 
It usually takes about three generations to lift 
a girl from a village home to the college, but 
when the pupil arrives she bears little resem- 
blance to her timid, untidy, ignorant sister. 
Most of the students there are second or third 
generation Christians. And yet one also sees 
girls of high position — the daughters of a court 
physician who have prevailed upon their father 
to allow them to prepare themselves to take up 
his profession, the niece of a Rajah, girls who 
must observe the purdah while home on vaca- 
tions but who discard it as the returning train 
nears Lucknow. Even among the Hindu students 
there are only three who still insist upon observ- 
ing caste rules and are therefore willing to eat 
by themselves, served with food prepared by 
their own caste cook. 

It must be agreed that the women of India are 
quite as much bound by their own ignorance, 
conservatism, and craving for conformity as they 
are by any restrictions imposed by the men. 
The hope of India lies in just such education of 
girls as the Isabella Thoburn College is demon- 
strating. I do not attempt to pass on the ques- 
tion of whether the position of Indian women 
has been painted worse than it is or not, but I 
am satisfied that India will never be a very safe 
place for democracy until these old valuations 
of womanhood are replaced by others more like 
those with which we are familiar. 

[152] 



THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN 

"What is the most important question before 
the women of the Orient?" I asked a Japanese 
lady whose two daughters are being educated in 
England. She herself comes of distinguished 
lineage and is of exceptionally high social position. 

"The men," she replied, simply. She made a 
gesture of disgust. I found this lady inclined 
to idealize American men and was moved there- 
fore by a sense of fairness to suggest that she 
was far too generous in her praises. She w T ould 
not permit me to drag her idol from his pedestal. 
When I left the room I am told that she exclaimed, 
"I don't care what he says. I shall never believe 
that American men are as bad as Japanese men." 

Not a little of this idealization of the American 
has come from the fact that Asia has her con- 
tacts with us through a morally highly selected 
class of men, the missionaries. The missionary 
is worth many times what he costs to our country, 
by the way, just for this good will which he 
tends to create. It is also this steady pressure 
of idealism that is carried to the Orient by the 
missionary which stirs Asia to the emancipation 
of her women. 

One goes to China today in a very expectant 
frame of mind. So much has been said and written 
in praise of the vitality of an ancient people, 
who can rise and cast out an antiquated form 
of government, that one comes to expect that 
in all respects the people of the new republic 
have set their feet on the swift road to enlighten- 
ment. Some of the facts one meets on arrival 

[153] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

are all the more shocking. No further away from 
Shanghai than Foochow there are still kept the 
shelves in the open street where the bodies of 
girl babies, killed by sanction of the ancient 
custom of infanticide, are placed to await the 
rounds of the dead-collector. In those same 
streets roam the hungry dogs for which China 
is famed. Yes, and the dogs jump up and pull 
down from the shelves the little uncollected 
bodies. A missionary reported recently, that in 
the course of a walk in a single afternoon he had 
seen no less than five such bodies being eaten by 
the dogs. Not pleasant, of course, either to think 
or write about, but one must remember that this 
picture belongs in any fair review of the present 
position of women in China. 

Foot-binding has not ceased, reports to the 
contrary notwithstanding. One can hardly escape 
in any interior city the cries of the little girls 
who are now having their feet bound for the 
first time. I have taken a picture of a group of 
school girls, all of them under eleven years of 
age, half of whom had had their feet bound be- 
fore the parents had thought of sending them 
to the mission school. Of course the mission- 
aries insisted that the feet be unbandaged before 
the girls could be admitted, but the damage had 
been done. In Shanghai, where one expects to 
find the new ideas most firmly rooted, the mis- 
sionaries in the fashionable McTyeire School for 
girls were shocked to discover that the feet of 
the little daughter of the school gardener were 

[154] 



THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN 

already being put into the bandages. "You can- 
not remain here," they said to the parents, "if you 
are going to bind your girl's feet." 

"Very well," replied the mother, "then we 
will leave. It is all well enough, for the Shanghai 
girls to have big feet, but my daughter must 
some day go back to her village to be married. 
Who, then, would marry her if she had big feet?" 
The next day the gardener and his wife departed. 

In contrast to this incident is the fact that 
among the pupils in the school itself the senti- 
ment against bound feet is so strong that it is 
quite unnecessary for the teachers even to men- 
tion the subject. These girls are too fond of 
basket-ball and hiking to accept any such handi- 
cap as bound feet imposes. Besides, they live in 
the hope that they may come to America to 
complete their education. 

The McTyeire School has "delayed classes" in 
its lower departments, especially for older women. 
It is not uncommon at McTyeire for a mother 
to enter her daughter in the kindergarten and 
then enter herself in a primary class in order 
that she may keep pace with her own child. 
Conditions in Shanghai are exceptional because 
of the large commercial interests of the city. 
There are a great many wealthy families there 
in which the husbands and the brothers have 
been educated abroad. The effect of this con- 
dition is to promote the rapid progress of the 
wives, sisters, and daughters. The demand for 
girls' schools like McTyeire is, therefore, very 

[155] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

great. There are always from ten to twenty 
McTyeire girls at school in the United States 
and England. In fact, one of the important 
functions of the school is to prepare girls to go 
abroad to finish their education. McTyeire has, 
among other courses, a class in European table 
manners, a knowledge of which is very important 
when the girls arrive in the United States. 

Suppose, for a moment, that a Chinese family 
had decided to educate its daughters. What 
are the choices? Only two: either a mission 
school or a school not under missionary direction. 
The government or the Chinese private school 
for girls may be a suitable place for ambitious 
girls to be baptized into the modernism of the 
Western world, and then again it may be quite 
unsuitable. It cannot be denied that there are 
not a few Chinese girls from progressive families 
who are acquiring rather alarming ideas of the 
liberties which belong to emancipated woman- 
hood. 

Even when the daughter has been safely 
graduated from a missionary school where sound 
ideals of women's place have been planted, the 
problem is not yet wholly solved. The girls of 
the Western world inherit a code of conduct 
which has the support of a very lively public 
opinion. The Chinese girl, who has discarded 
the old code of her people and hurled defiance 
at tradition by acquiring a modern education, 
finds no new code of conduct waiting to carry her 
on after she has left the school. She must make 

£156] 




THE HOPE OF NEW CHINA LIES 
VERY LARGELY IN THE EDUCATION 
OF THE GIRLS, FOR THE CHINESE 
WOMEN ARE THE GREAT CONSERVA- 
TORS OF THE NATIONAL LIFE. TO 
EDUCATE THE BOYS AND NEGLECT 
THEIR SISTERS WOULD BE TO INTRO- 
DUCE DEMORALIZATION AND CHAOS 
INTO THE NEW REPUBLIC. 



THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN 

her own code and she may draw the materials 
for it exclusively from French novels. One 
reads something of the difficulties of the educated 
Chinese girl in between the lines of the advertise- 
ment of a Girls' Letter Writer which is published 
by the Shanghai Commercial Press. It says: 
"The number of girls who can read and write 
is now increasing very rapidly and a letter 
writer suited to the needs of a girl is a necessity. 
In these two volumes some one hundred and 
sixty examples are grouped under three heads: 
letters to members of the family, to relatives, 
and to schoolmates. Their language is discreet 
and dignified." 

There is a very notable list of mission girls' 
schools and colleges in the Orient. One wishes 
that there were space in which to note all the 
fine things they are doing. And yet one finds 
that out of the total number of mission college 
students in China only eighteen per cent are 
girls. Ginling College in Nanking, which has 
not yet graduated its first class, is the only girls' 
college to maintain real college standards, and 
Ginling is having difficulty to secure properly 
prepared students. One may travel for days in 
the new republic and not find a single door open 
where a girl may obtain even a fair degree of 
western education. To a large extent similar 
conditions exist throughout the Orient, except 
in Japan and the Philippines. At present there 
are not even enough schools to produce the 
teachers who are needed to staff the primary 

[ 157 ] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

schools for girls. Asia bears down heavily on 
any effort of women to better their lot. 

On the other hand one may see how little it is 
possible to measure the woman movement in 
the Orient by statistics. A page from my journal 
gives a glimpse of the vast ranges of influence 
now being exercised by the women who have 
already been emancipated. Miss Laura White, 
formerly of the Methodist Mission in Nanking, 
has now undertaken the work of editor for the 
Christian Literature Society. Among her duties 
is to edit for Chinese women a magazine similar 
to our women's journals. She has taken into 
her office three Chinese girls as editorial assistants. 
This is what I found them doing: 

Miss Li, whose mother recently died, is now 
at work on a translation of Kathleen Norris's 
"Mother," not merely translating but also trans- 
posing the plot to Chinese locations and environ- 
ment, using her own mother as the model for 
the story. Miss Chen is translating Jacob Abbott's 
"Gentle Manners for the Training of the Young," 
also throwing the situations as well as the lan- 
guage into her mother tongue. Miss Yuan is 
at work on a temperance play, having recently 
finished a novel called "The Home-makers." 
She also adapted "The Bent Wing" to Chinese, 
laying the plot in Soochow. Miss White, with 
the help of her able assistants, has recently put 
out a book, "Looking Motherwards," a manual 
of instructions for expectant mothers. These 
women are creating the vehicle, a modern liter- 

[158] 



THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN 

ary form, by which the ideals of the new age 
are being carried out through the schools and 
press to the 200,000,000 women of China. 

Every phase of the feminist movement in the 
Western world, all its excesses and all its fine 
constructive measures, are being reflected in 
miniature in Asia. The next generation in the 
Orient will differ from the present one in no 
respect more notably than that the women will 
have more of justice and equality. India and 
China, as well as Japan and the Philippines, are 
undertaking each year larger enterprises for the 
education of girls. Meanwhile, the missionary 
and the mission-trained women are quietly lead- 
ing their sex, helping to steer it into courses where 
it will avoid the pitfalls and dangers which 
threaten those who would break with the past 
too abruptly. 



[159] 



REMAKING THE ORIENTAL 
SOCIAL ORDER 



CHAPTER VIII 

REMAKING THE ORIENTAL 
SOCIAL ORDER 

The Yangtze Engineering Works are located 
six miles down the river below Hankow. Some 
of their larger contracts consist of bridges for 
the Chinese railways and ships for the Japanese 
Government; they employ about 1,500 men and 
are equipped to handle almost everything in the 
way of large orders for the new China. 

When Wong Kwong, the president, had finished 
up his plant and assembled his machinery from 
England, Germany, and America, he decided to 
go a step further. Why not erect a model vil- 
lage for the employes? He was familiar with the 
most recent experiments of this sort abroad. 
A settlement of some sort was bound to grow 
up about the plant, for it had been built in an 
isolated spot. But the deciding factor in reaching 
his conclusion was the fact that he was a Chris- 
tian, and as practical as a man would have to 
be to create and maintain such a huge modern 
enterprise in a country where industrial practice 
has changed little in ten centuries. Having 
accepted the principle of brotherly love, he felt 
impelled to apply it with thoroughness. The 
model village was built, including a swimming 
pool, a church, a school for the children and 

[163] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

another one for the apprentices, a park, a tea- 
house, and a cooperative store. 

The project did not turn out to be an imme- 
diate success. Mr. Wong had not figured suffi- 
ciently on his unknown quantities — the wives. 
It was not difficult to persuade the families to 
move into these new, substantial homes, but it 
was not so simple to get the wives to adopt 
methods of housekeeping suitable to their new 
estate. They preferred to do as their mothers 
did and in their mothers' homes the line between 
the part of the house which belonged to the 
family and the part which belonged to the pigs 
was never very sharply drawn. In a few weeks 
Wong Kwong was reduced to despair; his fine 
houses were rapidly becoming pigpens. 

Up to this point in the story Mr. Wong's 
experience may have had in it much in common 
with those who have made similar experiments 
elsewhere, but we do not recall any other model 
village enthusiast who has followed him through 
the next steps in his adventure. 

The Wongs live hi the French Concession in 
Hankow, in the kind of house which one is likely 
to find in the better residential district of any 
French provincial city. Mr. Wong took his 
troubles home and talked them over with his 
wife — itself a most unusual proceeding for China. 
The conclusion of the Wong family council was 
that, although they could do very little to reach 
the wives directly, there was a good opportunity 
for an indirect approach. The Orient is famous 

[ 164 ] 



I: 






Mite; 




* ^ 


1 .1 


. 


\M 




/ 






=*■ 


L tl 


"I 


k ■Fik-i 


^ei 


sp^/> 


I 


jRP^ / f Lv -— ^ 


Cv:' '■ 


X 

T* 


P^- 


4\ v ""Jr 





A CORNER IX THE SHOP OF THE 
YANGTZE ENGINEERING WORKS AT 
HANKOW, A THOROUGHLY MODERN 
INDUSTRIAL PLANT, WHICH IS EN- 
GAGED IN SHIPPING AND BRIDGE 
BUILDING ON A LARGE SCALE. 



REMAKING THE SOCIAL ORDER 

for this kind of advance by detours. The obvious 
trouble with the model village was that the 
people who lived there did not know any better. 
The Wongs drew up a guest list and invited some 
of the key husbands in groups to come up to 
Hankow to eat at the Wong table, sleep in the 
Wong beds, and observe the new styles in living. 
The experiment was a huge success. The hus- 
bands went back to their families and, by what 
means we know not, explained to their wives 
that if they were to live in model villages they 
would have to brace up and become model house- 
keepers. 

China, Japan, and India are now beginning 
to pass in their industrial development from 
household, hand production to big factories and 
power machinery. In the next century one of 
the most marked changes in the Orient will be 
the growth of large industrial cities. Hankow, 
for example, may possibly become one of the 
greatest and most highly congested industrial 
centers of the world. At present the population 
of Asia is eighty or ninety per cent rural, resem- 
bling the Western world before the introduction 
of labor-saving machinery. It is often predicted 
that this industrial development in Asia will 
certainly be accompanied by the creation of new 
horrors of economic, industrial, and social mal- 
adjustment similar to, but far greater than, 
those which followed the same kind of growth 
in the Western world. It is quite probable that 
the exploitation of child and woman labor in 

[165] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

the weaving industry in Japan, China, and India, 
the atrocious hours of labor hi China and Japan, 
the disreputable housing conditions, congestion 
of population, growth of slums, development of 
large bodies of migratory laborers, already in 
evidence, are but the preface to some very un- 
lovely chapters about to be written in the develop- 
ment of Asia. 

The missionary sees that he has come to the 
Orient for just such a time as this. It is of the 
highest importance that he should be there. It 
cannot be recalled too often that Christianity 
and Western civilization are not at all identical. 
The missionary goes, the trader follows. They 
do not carry the same set of purposes, or the 
same stock of ideals. One carries power ma- 
chinery, capital, and the impulse to increased and 
effective production; the other carries the human- 
itarian ideals without which the mechanics of 
civilization become more of a menace than a 
benefit. 

Christianity in the Orient is laying an increas- 
ing stress upon the social implications of the 
Christian religion. Perhaps there is no other 
phase of the Christian movement in Asia which 
so completely demonstrates the value and ne- 
cessity of Christian ideals for the Eastern nations. 
As the propaganda reaches up more and more 
into the governing classes of society, it seems 
likely that one's fears for the future industrial 
life of the Orient may be happily disappointed. 
One sees evidences of this both in the very prac- 

[166] 



REMAKING THE SOCIAL ORDER 

tical way in which Christian manufacturers are 
applying their religion in the management of 
their business, and also in the emulation aroused 
among their competitors. A real public sentiment 
is being created to deal with , these grave prob- 
lems which are already in view. 

A very romantic biographical sketch from 
Japan may serve to illustrate these statements. 
One wishes that there were space for the in- 
clusion of other stories of a similar nature. 

Mr. Tsurukichi Hatano, of the Gunsei Silk 
Filature Company, Ayabe, describes himself as 
the Japanese Prodigal Son. And he is only an 
adopted son at that. As a young boy he was 
taken by a family which had no male heir, and 
in due time he married a daughter of the family. 
He plunged into riotous living with a vengeance 
and eventually the family decided to take legal 
measures to prevent the adopted heir from squan- 
dering the entire family fortune. Before they 
had time to act he scooped up all the money 
and valuables in sight and fled to Kyoto. Having 
reduced himself to the gutter by a life of the 
wildest extravagance, he stumbled one day into 
a Christian Rescue Hall in Kobe and was even- 
tually converted to Christianity. 

The prodigal returned to his native village, 
effected a reconciliation with his wife and family, 
and accepted the only position open to him, 
that of teacher in the grammar school at four 
yen a month. For a long time his fellow-towns- 
men stood aloof and he had a difficult time. 

[167] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

Hatano was not discouraged. He noticed that 
the farmers in that region were trying to raise 
cotton, although the soil was unsuited to the 
crop, whereas the eggs of uncultivated silk 
cocoons were commanding excellent prices. He 
tried to persuade the farmers to undertake silk 
growing, but most of them refused to heed his 
advice. Was it not given by one who had brought 
disgrace upon his family and his village? At 
length the schoolteacher found one farmer who 
would listen and even put up some money for 
an investigation. Starting with this slight assist- 
ance, Mr. Hatano began a study of the silk 
industry and in time made himself an expert in 
every phase of it. Today the county in which 
Ayabe is situated produces the best silk thread 
in Japan and Mr. Hatano has a silk filature which 
employs 3,000 workers. The company is an 
adventure in the Christian organization of indus- 
try, paying fifteen or twenty per cent dividends 
each year. So well established is the Gunsei 
Company that when, at the outbreak of the War, 
it became necessary to secure additional capital 
and 9,000 new shares of stock were offered at 
par there were immediate applications for 18,000. 

It is a pity that the tourist seldom gets nearer 
to Ayabe than the Kodzu rapids up the river 
from Kyoto. If one will only continue on the 
train for another fifty miles he will not only find 
himself in a charming, unspoiled Japanese vil- 
lage, but will also see modern Japanese industry 
from an angle which ought never to be forgotten 

[ 168 ] 



REMAKING THE SOCIAL ORDER 

when drawing conclusions about the future of 
Japan. 

One will better understand the Ayabe silk 
filatures and appreciate Mr. Hatano if one first 
has some comprehension of the deplorable con- 
ditions which have accompanied the development 
of modern industries in many other places in 
the Empire. The Japan Year Book for 1916 is 
authority for the statement that more than half 
a million women, three-fifths of whom are under 
twenty years of age, are employed in factories. 
In sericulture and silk reeling nine in every ten 
employes are women or girls. It is estimated 
that four out of every five women factory workers 
leave the factories each year. Two hundred 
thousand new women workers are recruited an- 
nually and out of this number 120,000 never 
return to their homes. About one fourth of 
those who do go back have tuberculosis. Long 
hours — as many as sixteen in a day seven days 
in the week — bad housing, tuberculosis, yes, and 
prostitution, travel together in the East as well 
as in the West. 

Japan is slowly awakening to the dangers to 
health and morality which menace the Empire 
because of these growing evils. A new public 
sentiment on the subject of the exploitation of 
women and children in factories is marked by 
the new factory law which went into effect in 
1917. But the law has so many exceptions written 
into it that it will accomplish very little. Public 
sentiment is still largely apathetic, and this 

[169] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

makes Mr. Hatano's enterprises all the more 
remarkable. 

The Ayabe factory is liberally furnished with 
mottoes such as: "Love transforms the world"; 
"Holiness is the foundation of all things"; "Sin- 
cerity to God." The Silk Workers' Training 
School has for its very practical motto: "A good 
tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a 
corrupt tree bring forth good fruit." But these 
lofty themes are not limited to verbal expression. 
They are also worked out in sanitary baths for 
the employes, beautiful dormitories, school rooms, 
and shorter hours of labor. There are a night 
school for employes, a day school for apprentices, 
a spotlessly clean hospital, a holiday every ten 
days for the girls, and religious services twice 
a month. When I expressed to Mr. Hatano 
my surprise that he was able to do so much for 
his employes and still compete successfully with 
other filatures, he assured me that his principles 
had proved to be good business policy. The 
employes turn out the best silk in Japan, be- 
cause they are so much interested in their work 
and so loyal to the factory. 

Unfortunately Japan is entering upon her 
industrial age with a very large proportion of 
her large employers of labor not believing in the 
principles which Mr. Hatano practices, but it 
ought to be noted that there are at least a score 
of them, most of whom are Christians, who do 
believe in Mr. Hatano's ideas and are working 
along similar lines. At present industrial organ- 

[170] 



REMAKING THE SOCIAL ORDER 

ization and trade unions are sternly forbidden. 
The movement for the betterment of labor con- 
ditions is almost entirely limited to the efforts 
of these few men who have gained their sense 
of social responsibility from the West and from 
Christianity. 

The industrial revolution will come very much 
more rapidly in Asia than it came in the West. 
The Orient is now being presented with the 
accumulated fund of automatic devices for ma- 
chine production which it has taken the Western 
world more than a century to develop. Hitherto 
it has been assumed that the Asiatic is too in- 
exact and careless in his mechanical processes 
to produce a high grade of finished product. 
Every factory in the Orient starts with a large 
proportion of Europeans on its staff to direct, 
supervise, and perfect the work turned out by 
the native workman. The disturbance of labor 
conditions due to the outbreak of the War has 
resulted in the subtraction of most of the for- 
eigners from these Asiatic manufacturing con- 
cerns. Formerly British and Continental 
machinery was generally used. It has now been 
discovered that the introduction of the most 
modern automatic machinery from America suffi- 
ciently supplements the ineptitude of the native 
workman, so that in the future the services of 
foreigners will be very largely dispensed with. 
The Tata Iron and Steel Company of India, for 
example, now has only a meager half dozen 
Americans employed, although at the outbreak 

[ 171 ] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

of the War there were forty Americans in the 
blast furnace department alone, and a large 
number of British and German employes in 
other departments. 

The industrial evils which follow large scale 
production, although already existing in Asia, 
are not yet sufficiently widespread so that one 
may speak of industrial reform. The present 
movement is directed largely toward the pre- 
venting of conditions which may some day de- 
mand reform. The missionary is the guest of 
the country in which he lives, and is almost 
certain to render himself unacceptable sooner or 
later if he personally and actively agitates for 
reform. His influence for social reform is nearly 
always indirect, through the converts who look 
to him for instruction and leadership. It will 
always be very difficult, except perhaps in China, 
to point directly to a single missionary and 
assert that he is responsible for a certain reform. 
On the other hand, it is equally certain that 
the sum total of the missionary influence through- 
out the Orient is a powerful leaven in moving 
for every modification of bad practices. 

The indirect influence of the missionary on 
social evils is nowhere more marked than in 
India. There are today no less than a dozen 
active agencies for social reform which, while 
not Christian, some of them being even violently 
anti-Christian, can be traced directly to the 
influence of the missionaries. 

The Brahmo Samaj is a Hindu reform sect 
[172] 




THIS EIGHTEEN-YEAR-OLD GIRL, 
A WIDOW AND THE DAUGHTER OF 
THE HEADMAN, HAS THE PROUD 
DISTINCTION OF BEING THE ONLY 
GIRL IN HER VILLAGE WHO CAN 
READ. SHE IS AN EXCELLENT EX- 
AMPLE OF WHAT EVEN A VERY 
CRUDE MISSIONARY SCHOOL CAN 
ACCOMPLISH IN A FEW YEARS. 



REMAKING THE SOCIAL ORDER 

which occupies something of the same relation 
toward orthodox Hinduism which the Unitarian 
and Universalist churches of the West occupy 
toward orthodox Christianity. The Brahmo 
Samaj owes its existence directly to Christianity, 
for it was an effort to stop the propagation of 
Christianity by reforming Hinduism. Its program 
includes the emancipation of women and the 
abolition of caste. Its founder, Rajah Ram 
Mohun Roy, was all but a Christian; he wrote 
an essay on "The Precepts of Jesus, the Way of 
Peace and Happiness," even accepting many of 
the miracles of Jesus. He describes Christ as 
intercessor and final judge of the world. After 
his death the father of Rabindranath Tagore, 
the poet, became the leader of the Brahmo. 
He believed in caste and gave the movement 
a strongly anti-Christian flavor. The result 
was a split in the ranks, at which Keshub Chun- 
der Sen led out a faction which was strongly 
Christian. 

Keshub baptized himself in a tank and then 
baptized his disciples. On his death bed he 
called his singing apostle and asked him to 
sing an old Bengali hymn written by a Baptist 
missionary portraying the Gethsemane scene of 
the gospels. The apostle could not recall it and 
so improvised a new hymn on the theme: "Let 
this cup pass from me." There are now three 
sects of the Brahmo Samaj and most of the 
members would endorse a strictly Christian code 
of social ethics. Christian books of devotion are 

[173] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

freely used by them. Their religious services 
and their churches are closely modeled after 
Christian styles. 

The Arya Sanaa j, a much larger and more 
aggressive Hindu reform sect, is violently anti- 
Christian and its members are responsible for 
some of the bitterest persecution which the 
Christian converts have to endure, and yet the 
movement aims at a purification of the Hindu 
religion which will separate it from some of the 
grosser and more cruel practices. The Arya 
teaches monotheism and the Fatherhood of God, 
and enjoins the education of girls, postponement 
of marriage, and abolition of hereditary caste. 
Back of the Arya movement lies the fear that 
the Christianizing of the people will denationalize 
them. The Arya draws to itself many of the 
political progressives and even the malcontents, 
although it cannot be classified as a political 
party. Most of its purposes for social reform 
are in substantial accord with Christianity. 

Another movement, closely associated with the 
Brahmo and more particularly with the Arya 
Samaj, is the work for the depressed classes 
and untouchables. Ram Baj Dutt of Lahore, a 
Brahmin land owner and a graduate of Forman 
Christian College, is one of the most active in 
this work. His purpose is to persuade the caste 
people to modify their rules with regard to the 
untouchables, of whom there are no less than 
forty millions in India, so that the outcastes 
may be readmitted to the caste order. He has 

[174] 



REMAKING THE SOCIAL ORDER 

a well-established ritual that includes baptism 
in which, with that show of ceremony which the 
Indian loves, he gathers the people of the village 
together and has the outcaste people, whose lot 
is ordinarily more miserable than that of slaves, 
formally received back into the caste. 

"I tell them," said Ram Baj Dutt, speaking 
of the outcastes, " 'Your blood is the same as 
that of a rajah. You are not a high-caste man 
simply because you have not been educated, 
but your children can go as high as they de- 
serve. If the high-caste people still lay upon 
you these menial tasks, tell them to do their 
own dirty work!' Then I lead the whole crowd, 
Brahmins, Hindus, Mussulmans, and outcastes, 
to the village well and there we have a sort of 
communion service, each taking a drink from the 
common vessel." Probably at least 100,000 out- 
castes in the Punjab alone have been taken back 
into the castes as a result of the Arya Samaj 
and this Purification Society. There are several 
other similar societies of greater or less extent 
at work for the amelioration of the outcaste 
people. It is probably not unfair to say that 
not one of them would have been started had 
it not been for the aggressive propaganda of 
the missionaries. The editor of The Indian 
Social Reformer, K. Natarajan, said to me: 

"The fear of the missionary has been the be- 
ginning of much social wisdom in India. The 
missions have interpreted the spiritual side of 
Western civilization to us, whereas without their 

[175] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

presence we would have seen only its material 
expressions. I know from personal experience 
that the reading of the Bible has greatly in- 
fluenced modern social thought in this country. 
Generally speaking there is a great reverence 
for Christ. The missionaries are our friends. 
On the other hand, social reform receives only 
slight support from the Indian Christians." 

This last statement, in so far as it is true, 
is notable. The Indian Christian is very fond 
of the theological end of Christianity. "Why 
are you Christians?" I have asked many con- 
verts. The answer is almost always the same: 
"Because I believe that Jesus Christ is the in- 
carnate Son of God and the only sufficient Saviour 
from sin." If one were to ask a Chinese convert 
why he is a Christian he would probably reply, 
"Because I wish to help my country." At the 
present moment it is probably fortunate for 
Christianity in India that the converts have 
not been too much attracted to the subject of 
social reform, for it is nearly always traveling 
along the edge of political propaganda. With 
the present excited condition of the educated 
Indian mind, a pronounced patriotic, nationalist, 
Christian movement might be very destructive 
to church and state alike. It must be remem- 
bered, however, that while the Indian convert 
does not join the Hindu social reform move- 
ments, he himself is, above all, the great apostle 
of reform, for he goes back to his village, sets 
his own house in order, opens a school, starts a 

[176] 



REMAKING THE SOCIAL ORDER 

church, and practices every one of the reforms 
which the reformers agitate to accomplish. 

It is unfortunate that the limits of space do 
not permit the extended treatment of some 
special reforms like the temperance, opium, and 
morphine agitations, which in all countries from 
India to Japan are now receiving great attention 
from the Christian leaders. Japan has never 
permitted the importation of opium for general 
use and China has effectually stamped out the 
smoking habit among all save the official classes, 
but the opium business still has its roots deep 
in Malaysia and in other more remote regions. 
It was asserted, not without a good show of 
authority, at the recent China Medical Congress 
at Canton that morphine imported from Japan 
is rapidly taking the place of opium. It is re- 
ported that not less than sixteen tons of morphine 
were imported into China in a single year. The 
extension of the Japanese Post Office and the 
laws of extra-territoriality in China greatly facil- 
itate this traffic. The use of liquor is also spread- 
ing with alarming rapidity in Asia as well as in 
Africa. Both the missionaries and the native 
converts are, however, alert to these dangers, 
and many interesting stories might be told 
illustrating how Christianity is rendering an 
effective service in the protection of the Eastern 
races from the evils which have followed the 
introduction of Western civilization. 

The storm center of social reform in Asia for 
the next quarter of a century is likely to be over 

[ 177 ] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

the relation of the sexes. This movement I will 
describe more in detail. 

If any statement of the menace of polygamy 
were necessary to bring home to American 
readers the immediacy of the subject, some 
recent statements from the editorial columns 
of The Far Eastern Review would seem to be 
suitable. The Caucasian population of the world 
is doubling its numbers once in a hundred years, 
states the editor; the dark-skinned races, which 
now outnumber the white population two to one, 
are doubling their numbers every twenty-five 
years — at least such is the case in Korea where 
the most recent figures are available. The editor 
of The Far Eastern Review figures out that at 
the present rate of increase the Caucasian ele- 
ment in the world's population will have shrunk 
in a hundred years to scarcely five per cent. 

The Oriental demands male children, as many 
of them as he can produce. The editorial goes 
on to state: "So long as the Oriental man is 
able to arrogate to himself the right to possess 
plural wives, just so long will polygamy prevail. 
But there is a way out and one which is becoming 
broader and more easy to tread each year. Easier 
for the new woman at least, for marriages among 
the returned girl students take place soon after 
they reach China again and scarcely one nuptial 
contract is drawn between two foreign-educated 
Chinese that does not contain an agreement, 
either in black and white or tacit at least, that 
this wife shall be the only wife so long as she 

[178] 




ONE CAN BEAD IX THE FACE 
OF THIS COTTON OPERATIVE IN 
SHANGHAI THE IMPENDING TRAG- 
EDY WHERE WESTERN CIVILIZA- 
TION AS REPRESENTED BY MODERN 
INDUSTRIALISM IS INTRODUCED INTO 
THE EAST. THE EXPLOITATION OF 
WOMEN AND CHILDREN, THE GROWTH 
OF CONGESTED CITIES, LONG HOURS, 
UNSANITARY CONDITIONS OF EM- 
PLOYMENT, AND KINDRED EVILS, 
ARE CREATING A NEW SET OF SO- 
CIAL AND ECONOMIC PROBLEMS 
WHICH THE EAST IS QUITE UNPRE- 
PARED TO SOLVE WITHOUT HELP. 



REMAKING THE SOCIAL ORDER 

shall live. The wife with foreign education is 
a precious thing in China in the eyes of the 
returned student, since she is one of a few women 
of his own race who realize and understand 
his peculiar aspirations. Rubies are as nothing 
compared to her, and her slightest prenuptial 
wish is law. She has it in her hands to be the 
one and only wife and if the few examples that 
have come under the writer's notice are any 
criterion, she will exert that power to the utmost." 

It should be added that, while the influence 
of the returned girl students is undoubtedly 
being exerted to that end, their influence is small 
in comparison with that of the girl graduates 
of missionary schools within the country. The 
number of returned students is, as yet, relatively 
small, while the missionary girls' schools of 
secondary and college grade, alone, have an 
annual enrolment of 10,822 pupils. 

Another phase of this question of polygamy 
appears from an interview which I had in Peking 
with Yung Tao, the wealthy Chinese philan- 
thropist and social reformer. I called on him on 
the day when the Chang Hsun revolution was just 
breaking over the city. "Just look at China," 
he exclaimed, "see all these troubles she is in; the 
future is very dark. Her heart is spoiled — all be- 
cause she has no religion. The worst trouble in 
China is concubinage. The men have so many 
wives and play with them so much that they 
must all 'squeeze.' Look at our great men like 
Yuan Shih Kai and President Li, and even our 

[179] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

returned students. They have so many wives all 
their cleverness is gone. They cannot think. I 
have watched it often among my friends. So 
long as they are contented with one wife they do 
very well. When they acquire concubines they 
begin to weaken and become flabby. Many na- 
tions want China to be good, but it is useless; 
there are so many bad customs. China's great 
weakness is in her family life." 

"I am so proud of my country/' went on 
Yung, "its ancient history, its big, good land, its 
millions of people. I believe the common folks 
are as good as .in any nation. Only the upper 
classes are bad: they are thieves and robbers. 
Men, to preserve the peace of their own house- 
holds, learn to speak lies and deceive. They do 
not know real love." 

Yung Tao has the strength of his convictions. 
In addition to financing many private philan- 
thropies, he is promoting a Social Reform Asso- 
ciation which already has 17,000 members. When 
I saw him he was drafting a bill to be presented 
to Parliament to forbid the continuance of the 
concubinage ' system. Some years ago this same 
gentleman, when not a Christian, purchased and 
distributed several thousand copies of the Bible 
in a specially bound form to his friends. 

It is not merely China which suffers from the 
enervating effects of polygamy. It is the com- 
mon practice, in one form or another, through- 
out the Orient. 

When I went to Madam Yajami in Tokyo and 
[180] 



REMAKING THE SOCIAL ORDER 

asked her what she considered the next step to 
be taken by the women of Japan, she replied in 
her simple, quaint English, "One man, one 
woman, one home." As President of the Jap- 
anese Woman's Christian Temperance Union she 
is actively pushing for this reform, and meeting 
with no little success, too. Aided by some other 
very energetic women and by some men, under 
the encouragement of the missionaries, she has 
helped to create a substantial new sentiment 
against the yoshiwaras, the segregated districts 
of which every Japanese city was formerly more 
or less proud. Until recently the city of Osaka 
has been publishing an official guide map of the 
city for visitors in which the segregated districts 
were especially designated as places of attraction. 
Now Osaka has practically abolished her yoshi- 
waras, and one of the leading newspapers of the 
city, and of the Empire for that matter, has 
opened its columns to a series of articles on 
social purity by Colonel Yamamura of the Sal- 
vation Army. 

It would be impossible to prove the statement 
that the most heavily capitalized export business 
in Japan is the exportation of girls for immoral 
purposes, but the statement has been made with 
some authority. The Japanese prostitute is 
sent into every country in Asia and to the Islands 
of the Sea. Dr. George E. Morrison of Peking 
told me that for a long time the only Japanese 
women ever seen in Australia were prostitutes. 
They are peddled in groups of three and four 

[181] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

with a male manager through the villages of 
Mongolia; one finds them by the hundreds in 
the mining towns of the Malay Peninsula. They 
have gone even to India. These girls are moved 
about with obvious business direction and no 
small amount of capital must be involved in 
the business. 

Perhaps the women of the West could make 
no finer contribution to the women of Asia than 
to lend the force of their organized opposition 
to this business. At the coming peace conference 
every question relating to the welfare of the 
Orient will be up for discussion. Japan is pre- 
pared to make representations that she be per- 
mitted special privileges and rights of leadership. 
She is also very sensitive to the approval of 
public opinion in the West. It might be quite 
possible for the women of the United States to 
join with the women of Japan in demanding 
that the Empire prohibit a practice which is 
doing much to discredit her moral influence among 
the races of Asia. The Japanese Government is 
already beginning to feel the pressure of public 
opinion on the subject from within the Empire. 

Some years ago I visited the hospital of Dr. 
Frank Van Allen of the American Board in 
Madura, South India. "What are the chief 
diseases which you have to fight?" I asked. 
"Tuberculosis, malaria, and venereal disease." 
Any mission doctor in Asia will bear out the 
statement that the blood of Asia has been very 
badly poisoned with venereal taint. Among the 

[182] 



REMAKING THE SOCIAL ORDER 

most frequently advertised patent medicines on 
the Oriental bill-board are those which promise 
a cure for syphilis. 

The statement is sometimes made that polyg- 
amy prevents prostitution. The statement is not 
borne out by the facts. Every city in Asia has 
its segregated districts. One has but to glance 
at the reports of "The Door of Hope" of Shanghai 
to see how extensive is the evil in China. "The 
Door of Hope" was started by a group of mis- 
sionary ladies and is still directed by them, but 
now receives generous subsidies from the mu- 
nicipal government. Little girls are often sold 
even by their parents into slavery, which fre- 
quently leads to prostitution. I have a picture 
of one girl who was sold for $500, although the 
price is usually much less than that. 

Strangely enough, the "Door of Hope" girls, 
after they have been in the institution a year 
or more, are largely in demand as Chinese preach- 
ers' wives. There is little stigma attached to 
their previous occupation in the eyes of the 
Chinese, for most of the girls were first placed 
in houses of ill fame without their consent. While 
there they receive special training in the social 
graces and become far more accomplished, so- 
cially, than is the average Chinese girl. Hardly 
a week goes by but that some young Chinese 
preacher comes to "The Door of Hope," by pre- 
arrangement with the matron, and takes away 
a bride for the most exacting duties of a min- 
ister's wife. 

[183] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

The relation between this movement against 
prostitution and polygamy in the Orient and 
Christianity is obvious. The missionary not 
merely establishes the rescue home, but also 
imparts a new set of ideals for family life and for 
the treatment of women. Meanwhile the women 
themselves are beginning to rise and assert their 
rights. The missionary is not always the leader. 
Often the missions exercise a conservative in- 
fluence which is very much needed at present. 
The currents of social reform more and more 
reach down to the family life and their initial 
influence is often destructive. Before a new 
code of conduct and etiquette can be created, 
the old code has disappeared, and the girls, 
thrust out of their homes into school, shop, or 
mill, will have no established social order on which 
to lean. The steadying influence of the mission- 
aries is important, not merely in reforms relating to 
women, but in all of the social reform movements. 

There is a tremendous capacity for radical 
thought and action being created through the 
missions. Every convert to Christianity must, 
of necessity, be a radical. He has to repudiate 
almost an entire social order before he can be 
baptized. Were the missionary unable to exer- 
cise also a conservative influence over the new 
lives of his converts, the results might often be 
alarming. As it is, there is being steadily created 
an increasing number of people in every race 
in Asia whose faces are resolutely set toward 
social reform. 

[184] 



REMAKING THE SOCIAL ORDER 

When one finishes a study of these social re- 
form movements, he sees as never before how 
utterly statistics fail to convey adequate notions 
of the extent of missionary achievement in the 
Orient. In the new social order one everywhere 
sees a process of restratification in which each 
nation is being divided into two sections, the one 
English-speaking and the other non-English- 
speaking. The people who speak English are the 
leaders of public opinion. These leaders, almost 
without exception, although they are not Chris- 
tians in any theological or ecclesiastical sense, 
and perhaps never will be, have already adopted 
heartily as their ideal a Christianized social order. 



[185] 



NATIONALISM AND CHURCH UNITY 
IN ASIA 



CHAPTER IX 

NATIONALISM AND CHURCH UNITY 
IN ASIA 

One of the marked expressions of the grow- 
ing national and racial self-consciousness of 
Asia is the development of independent Chris- 
tian churches. 

The Christian communities respond more 
quickly to the fresh intellectual and spiritual 
breezes now blowing across the ancient East 
because Christian converts are more literate, and 
the most stirring appeal now being made to the 
peoples of the Orient is that of rationalism. 
Furthermore, in the mission school and in their 
experiments with ecclesiastical organization the 
Christians acquire self-confidence. Have they 
not already broken with their racial past, re- 
pudiating the traditions of their elders? What 
could be more natural than that they should also 
become impatient to declare their entire independ- 
ence in church as well as in state? The Christian 
missions of Asia are cradles of patriotism. 

There is little basis for the fear that the mis- 
sions are creating groups of permanently de- 
pendent and non-self-supporting churches. In- 
deed, the missionary will usually tell one that 
one of his most difficult problems is to restrain, 
without discouraging, his people in their desires 

[189] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

to accept greater responsibilities than they are 
able to discharge creditably. On the other hand, 
the native Christians often complain with even a 
trace of bitterness of the paternalism of the mis- 
sionary. Today nationalism and ecclesiastical inde- 
pendence are traveling hand in hand in the Orient. 

When the Filipinos became separated from 
Spain, the Independent Filipino Catholic Church 
came into being under the leadership of Arch- 
bishop Aglipay. Although this church has now 
largely lost its vitality, its history illustrates a 
spirit which is more or less characteristic of the 
entire East. 

It will be recalled that the American occupa- 
tion of the Philippines came at a time of internal 
revolution. For more than two years the Filipinos 
had been in rebellion against Spain. This move- 
ment had been religious as well as economic 
and political. The Filipinos felt that the Spanish 
friars had taken sides against the people and 
had become oppressors rather than spiritual 
guides. Aglipay had been trained for the priest- 
hood and had held several important positions 
in the Roman Catholic Church before the revolu- 
tion came. Eventually he cast in his lot with 
the rebels and after the American occupation 
joined the insurrectos. He gathered two score 
or more of spirits as untamed as himself, and 
became a very effectual thorn in the side of the 
Government for months. His band of outlaws 
led the United States troops many an exciting 
chase into the hills before it was scattered. 

[190] 




ARCHBISHOP AGLIPAY, OF THE 
INDEPENDENT FILIPINO CATHOLIC 
CHURCH, WAS FORMERLY AN OFFI- 
CER IN THE INSURRECTO ARMY 
AND GAVE THE AMERICAN TROOPS 
A GREAT DEAL OF TROUBLE. 
LATER HIS PATRIOTIC IMPULSES 
WERE DIVERTED TO THE LEADER- 
SHIP OF A FILIPINO CHURCH EX- 
CLUSIVELY UNDER NATIVE CONTROL. 



NATIONALISM AND CHURCH UNITY 

The insurrection having been abandoned, Agli- 
pay joined hands with a most enterprising press 
agent by the name of Prousch and lifted the 
standard of rebellion against the friars. Prousch 
had drifted into the Islands by way of India, 
where he had developed a most uncompromising 
antipathy to the Roman Catholic Church, dab- 
bled in missionary work, and polished off an 
amazing vocabulary of American slang. Prousch 
backed Aglipay to be a second Martin Luther 
and placed his diversified talents entirely at the 
insurrecto-priest's disposal. As press agent (I 
have the story from his own lips) he made a tour 
of the provincial towns, telling of the exploits 
of his patron, and securing permission from the 
authorities for Aglipay to come and celebrate 
mass in the plaza on some Sunday morning. 
Then he went back to Manila, placed a miter on 
the head of Aglipay, pronounced him Archbishop 
of the Independent Catholic Church, and led 
him forth to fill the engagements. 

The Filipinos flocked to the new leader in 
great numbers. There were sometimes as many 
as 10,000 people at these open-air masses. The 
archbishop proclaimed a reformation and fol- 
lowed up his promises by writing a new creed, 
in which Unitarianism ran rampant, and by de- 
vising a ritual in which most of the forms familiar 
to the Filipinos were retained. It was the spirit 
of nationalism and independence which gave the 
new institution its wings. 

The movement began to number its adherents 
[191] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

by the hundreds of thousands and at one time 
claimed between four and five million people. 
Then came a series of reverses. It was impossible 
to find adequately trained priests to shepherd 
the new parishes. The courts decided that 
dissenting congregations could not hold titles to 
the old church properties. The new archbishop 
did not develop the qualities of leadership which 
his press agent had hoped to find. The Roman 
Catholic Church, freed from a measure of Spanish 
influence and placed under American leadership, 
made many concessions and in time the Inde- 
pendent Filipino Catholic Church, which had 
always been less a church than a movement, 
collapsed, although the venerable archbishop still 
boasts of its extent and influence. The signifi- 
cance of the adventure lay in the fact that it 
was, and still is, an expression of national self- 
consciousness. It illustrates at once both the 
ease with which Oriental peoples may be 
stampeded by an appeal to freedom and also 
the peculiar difficulties of the missionary, as he 
continually nourishes among his followers a 
patriotic sense which may easily get out of hand 
and be turned into abortive action. 

Independent Protestant churches in Asia have 
usually met with greater success than the Aglipay 
movement in the Philippines. Indeed, the funda- 
mental purpose of Protestant missionary work is 
the creation of self-supporting, self-propagating, 
self-governing churches. Already, after less than 
half a century of missionary work in Japan, 

[192] 



NATIONALISM AND CHURCH UNITY 

there are several independent Japanese denom- 
inations. One will look in vain in the Japanese 
church directory for the names Presbyterian and 
Congregational. Many years ago the Congre- 
gational Christians of the Empire were organized 
into what are known as the Kumaii churches 
and went on their way with the blessing of the 
missionaries. Many thought at the time that 
these converts were departing from the fold too 
soon and later developments appear to have 
justified that conviction, but nevertheless the 
Kumaii churches are now well on their feet and 
prospering. Similarly the Presbyterian and the 
Methodist converts have formed themselves into 
denominations and maintain their own com- 
pletely independent institutions. 

One remarkable feature of the independent 
national churches is that they often represent 
not merely independence but inter-church union 
as well. The Church of Christ in Japan is com- 
posed of the members from the American, the 
Canadian, and the Australian Presbyterian mis- 
sions. There is a Presbyterian Church similarly 
formed in Korea. The Methodist Church of 
Japan, which has its own bishop, creed, and 
ritual, was made up from the missions of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, South, and the Canadian Method- 
ist Church. In each case where a national church 
has been formed, the original missions out of 
which the church came still continue their work; 
the new churches are by no means yet able to 

[193] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

undertake the support of all necessary missionary 
work. For example, it is estimated that only 
twenty per cent of the population of Japan has 
yet been offered the Christian faith in any effec- 
tive effort. The mission boards even arranged to 
give these independent churches a fixed amount 
of financial assistance on a scale which decreases 
year by year. 

The United Church of South India is the most 
recent independent church to be thus formed. 
This was organized from the converts of Con- 
gregational, Presbyterian, and Dutch Reformed 
missions and is, therefore, unique in having 
made a combination which would be altogether 
impossible even in the enlightened United States. 

Within a few months a still more extensive 
movement toward church union has been in- 
augurated in China. All its Presbyterian churches 
have been joined in a Federal Council of Pres- 
byterian churches for all China, in which Presby- 
terian North, Presbyterian South, Dutch Re- 
formed, and German Reformed, from the United 
States; English, two Scotch, and Irish Presby- 
terian from Great Britain; Canadian Presbyterian, 
and New Zealand, are represented. At the same 
time many leading American and English Con- 
gregationalists have expressed a desire to join 
forces with these Presbyterians in a Federal 
Council of Churches for China, which in the 
minds of the Chinese will not be very sharply 
distinguished from complete church union. 

When one remembers that in our own country 
[194] 



NATIONALISM AND CHURCH UNITY 

there are no less than twelve kinds of Presby- 
terians and sixteen kinds of Methodists, not to 
mention other illustrations of a similar diversity 
of ecclesiastical opinion, he realizes to what 
an extent the leadership in church union has 
already passed to the mission field. While the 
churches in the United States are talking about 
church union, the mission churches, under the 
spur of patriotism, are accomplishing it. 

Notwithstanding the one remarkable national 
church of South India, it must be noted that 
both church union and missionary cooperation 
in India lag behind the pace set elsewhere in 
Asia. Generally speaking, Indian missionary 
work is older and, for that reason among others, 
more bound by tradition than is the work in 
China or Japan. It must be admitted that the 
older type of missionary work did not look 
toward church union, and often not even toward 
cooperation. On the other hand, the rise of 
nationalism is already exercising an influence on 
the Indian Christians which is bound to have 
a wholesome effect. Home Rule aspirations 
are as rife in religious as in political circles. 
Ecclesiastical independence always looks toward 
consolidation and church union, just as it did 
when the South India United Church was formed. 
Many English missionaries have confessed to me 
that they are having difficulty in keeping 
their converts impressed with the necessities 
of their own peculiar creed. American mission- 
aries, though not regretting them, have told 

[195] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

me of similar difficulties. The next decade will 
doubtless record a great advance for the Indian 
Christians along the line of independence. Al- 
ready the Anglican Church has elected Azariah, 
born an outcaste, to the high office of bishop. 

The one charge most frequently brought by 
the Indian critic of the missions is that the 
missionary has so placed himself in partnership 
with the Government that he is unable to be an 
impartial friend of the native in his struggles 
for Home Rule. There is at least a slight basis 
for the charge. Practically all missions, if they 
can get it, accept grant-in-aid funds from the 
Government for educational work. I have heard 
Indians argue that this system makes of the 
missionary practically a government servant. It 
certainly does impose obligations which may 
appear to range the missionary on the side of 
the Government. For example, the missionary 
teacher is expected by the police to see that 
his pupils do not have in their possession litera- 
ture which has been placed on the government 
index. The teacher may be quite in accord with 
the Government as to the unwisdom of per- 
mitting certain literature to circulate among 
immature students, but it is unfortunate that 
the missionary schools have been so related to 
the Government that when the teacher approaches 
the students on the subject of seditious literature 
he appears less as a friend than as a Government 
employe. A complete separation of church and 
state in India would mean the withdrawal of 

[196] 



NATIONALISM AND CHURCH UNITY 

hundreds of thousands of dollars from the support 
of missionary schools. No mission board is now 
prepared to make proportionate increases in appro- 
priations, but the losses resulting from complete 
separation of the missionaries from the Govern- 
ment would have their compensations. 

There is now a movement of growing propor- 
tions which demands that the study of the Bible 
and attendance upon chapel exercises shall be 
voluntary in all mission schools which receive 
government aid. If this agitation ever achieves 
its object, many of the missions will doubtless 
return to their old status as they were before 
the grant-in-aid system was offered. In other 
words, the missions will go on to a basis similar 
to that in China, Japan, and the Philippines, 
where the governments offer no direct assistance 
except the maintenance of religious liberty. 
Meanwhile, the Indian missions unfortunately are 
not in a position to maintain a strict neutrality 
between the Government and the people in the 
Home Rule strife. This existing condition is 
grist for the mill of the Indian Christian who 
is not at all contented to belong to a foreign- 
ruled church. 

Another influence which is tending to bring 
the Indian converts together is the fear, which 
is more or less general, that the Christianizing 
of a convert is equivalent to denationalizing him. 
It has often been the custom in missions when 
a new convert is baptized to give him a new name. 
This has frequently been really necessary in view 

[197] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

of the fact that many Oriental names verge on 
the obscene. In such cases it is customary to 
name the convert after some substantial Biblical 
character, the result being that the convert loses 
whatever national or racial character a name 
may ordinarily give. Orphans have often been 
named after donors who have agreed to support 
them in mission orphanages. Critics of the mis- 
sionary work look upon such a policy with great 
disfavor. Any missionary policy of the future 
which does not tend to make the convert a more 
ardent and stable patriot will be working against 
the tide. 

In Japan and in China the old national re- 
ligions have been closely identified with patriot- 
ism. The establishment of national Christian 
churches in Japan has done much to free the 
Christians in that country from the suspicion 
of lack of patriotism. China also is now realizing 
that its people do not become any less patriotic 
by being baptized. When Admiral Li Ho be- 
came Vice-Minister of the Chinese Navy under 
Yuan Shih Kai, the latter ordered him to go to 
the temple of the War-god and swear allegiance 
to his new chief. The admiral, being a Christian 
and yet fully measuring the consequences of 
insubordination, refused to obey on the grounds 
of religious scruples. For a little while it looked 
as though the admiral might lose not only his 
new post, but also his head. General Li Yuan 
Hung became the mediator, and the affair was 
settled in a manner which established a precedent 

[198] 




THIS BUDDHIST MONK OF PEKING 
IS ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE QUALITY 
OF THE CHINESE SPIRITUAL LEADER- 
SHIP WHICH HAS BEEN PRODUCED 
UNDER THE DECADENT RELIGIOUS 
LIFE OF THE NATION. THERE IS 
NO MORE HOPE FOR CHINA IN SUCH 
MEN AS THESE THAN IN THE IRRE- 
SPONSIBLE MILITARY LEADERS WHO 
ARE NOW IN POWER. 



NATIONALISM AND CHURCH UNITY 

that a Christian may take his oath of allegiance 
in a Christian manner. 

The new spirit of nationalism is only one of 
several forces which are operating to promote 
Christian unity in the Orient. As has already 
been suggested, the missionary himself is often 
one of the most active factors. Sometimes his 
fear that the converts are ill prepared for greater 
responsibilities puts him in the awkward position 
of appearing to oppose a movement which is 
nationalistic in its aspiration. The Oriental is 
inclined even more perhaps than the Occidental 
to draw the color line. He is, therefore, very 
quick to detect whatever may appear as a dis- 
crimination against him or an understatement of 
his ability. The missionary lives in very intimate 
relations with the native. He sees him at his 
worst as well as at his best. Sometimes his affec- 
tion for his converts undoubtedly leads him to 
an exaggerated estimate of their ability. I be- 
lieve it is not unfair to say that the Chinese 
conditions of the last decade have been too 
favorably presented to the Western public. We 
have sometimes been led thereby to expect too 
much from China in ability to manage her diffi- 
cult affairs. On the other hand, it is not at all 
unlikely that the missionary is sometimes too 
close to the racial defects of his charges to ap- 
praise fully their better qualities. However, it 
is plain that a people is hardly better able to 
support self-government in the church than it 
is to support it in the state. Only the Japanese 

[199] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

have yet demonstrated that they can do the 
latter. There appears to be very little founda- 
tion for the charge that the missionary adopts 
too paternalistic an attitude toward his converts 
and that he fails to realize and utilize whatever 
degree of ability they may have in self-government. 

Although the convert himself is usually very 
loyal to his new faith, often proving this by great 
sacrifice and severe suffering, one will find very 
little sectarian loyalty in the Orient. Western 
denominational traditions do not hold him. A 
Chinese clergyman is reported to have risen in 
a recent union meeting of the churches in Nanking 
and said, pointing in turn to several of the mis- 
sionaries, "You are an American Presbyterian: 
you can't help it, for you were brought up that 
way. You are a Canadian Methodist, and you 
can't help it either, for a similar reason. You 
are an Anglican Churchman, and we can't blame 
you for that. But we are Chinese Christians 
and we do not propose that you men from abroad 
shall keep us apart." The defiance was more 
playful than real earnest, for there was probably 
no desire whatever on the part of the mission- 
aries assembled to propagate among the Chinese 
the denominational divisions which prove so 
damaging at home. 

China is preeminent in the extent to which 
the spirit of church union and inter-church co- 
operation has been carried. This is due, one 
may state it humbly, in large measure to the 
fact that in China the missionary leadership is 

[200] 



NATIONALISM AND CHURCH UNITY 

most frequently in the hands of Americans. New 
methods of work are also easier in China because 
the work itself is often newer than elsewhere. 
Some of the more recently established mission 
stations have been definitely planned with a 
view to fostering a spirit of church union and 
independence. I have sometimes so shown my 
amazement at the spirit of the missionaries, in 
contrast to the apathetic attitude of the denom- 
inations in the West towards church union, as 
to draw forth this statement: "Out here we are 
moving toward church unity just as rapidly as 
our denominations at home will permit us to 
move." 

While the non-Christian world has yet to see 
such a demonstration of Christian unity as there 
would be if the various missionary boards would 
agree to organize a definitely interdenominational 
mission to be jointly supported among them, the 
number of union educational, medical, and ad- 
ministrative institutions already established is 
truly amazing. The new missionary arriving in 
China, for example, goes first to a Union Lan- 
guage School which is supported by a group of 
missions. There he not only learns the language 
according to the most approved linguistic methods 
under competent teachers, but he also learns to 
know the other missionaries who later on will 
labor in neighboring fields for other denomina- 
tions. His first contacts with the missionary 
problem are therefore those in which sectarianism 
has little part. 

[201] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

As the children of the native Christians pass 
on up from the lower schools they enter union 
universities. They prepare for their professions 
frequently in union medical schools and union 
theological seminaries. The converts of widely 
differing denominations meet together in the 
classroom and on the athletic field. When the 
provincial governor comes to visit the West China 
Union University, the students turn out with an 
American brass band and march past him sing- 
ing with a zeal which is Methodist, Baptist, or 
Quaker, "The bull-dog on the bank and the bull- 
frog in the pool." In China and Korea together 
there are no less than fifty -four union educational 
institutions, of which nine are medical schools, 
ten are colleges, and fifteen are theological sem- 
inaries. There are thirty-eight different societies 
cooperating in one or more of these schools, 
twenty-two of the denominations being Amer- 
ican. 

The present tendency throughout the mission 
fields is to perfect comity agreements, according 
to which the various missions operating in a 
single area agree to definite assignments of terri- 
tory to prevent overlapping and competition. The 
public opinion on this subject is now so well 
formed that few missions dare to disregard these 
agreements. The mission fields are all far in 
advance of the churches at home in this regard. 
In marked contrast to religious conditions in the 
United States, one cannot point to a single foreign 
missionary area which, with reference to the size 

[202] 




THE INTRODUCTION OF SCIEN- 
TIFIC EDUCATION INTO INDIA HAS 
RESULTED IN A NEW TYPE OF GRAD- 
UATE, WHO IS PREPARED TO LEAD 
HIS PEOPLE IN A MORE EFFECTIVE 
DEVELOPMENT OF THEIR IMMENSE 
NATIONAL RESOURCES. 



NATIONALISM AND CHURCH UNITY 

of the population, can be said to be "over- 
churched." 

Aside from the spirit of the missionaries them- 
selves, the definite union undertakings, and the 
comity agreements, the other great forces work- 
ing for Christian unity within the missionary 
circle are the Young Men's Christian Association, 
the Young Women's Christian Association, the 
Bible and Christian Literature Societies, and the 
various Continuation Committees of the Edin- 
burgh Conference of 1910. 

The Young Men's Christian Association goes 
into a city at the invitation of the missionaries, 
gathers up the leading laymen from all the mis- 
sions, brings them together around a table, gives 
them large responsibilities, and thus welds the 
Christian forces into a substantial unity. Its 
building provides an assembly room for union 
Christian meetings, and its secretaries, by virtue 
of the fact of their sectarian neutrality, become 
convenient leaders for union movements. The 
Young Women's Christian Association, while by 
no means as extensively or adequately repre- 
sented as its older brother, performs a similar 
service in its own way. 

The great harmonizing ana unifying power of 
the Edinburgh Conference in 1910, bringing to- 
gether as it did representatives not only from 
all the mission fields but from all the different 
denominations, has not been dissipated. Each 
missionary area like China, India, and Japan 
has its Continuation Committee, its offices, and 

[203] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

executive secretaries. There is nothing compulsory 
about the decisions of these committees, but by 
means of wise leadership and great tact their 
decisions are coming to have the force of law. 
These offices are also of inestimable value in 
promoting the adoption of new methods of work. 

No treatment of the union movement in Asia 
is complete without reference to some of the new 
non-sectarian institutions such as Yale in China 
at Changsha, the Harvard Medical School at 
Shanghai, and the Canton Christian College. The 
two former institutions are, as their names imply, 
missionary enterprises undertaken by universities 
and quite separated from any sectarian control. 
The college at Canton, which is sometimes known 
among the Chinese as "The Man Factory," 
works in hearty cooperation with all the missions 
centering in Canton, and yet is governed by a 
board of trustees quite independent of the mission 
boards. Pennsylvania State College, Teachers' 
College (Columbia), University of Pennsylvania, 
University of Pittsburg, and Vassar, through 
their student associations, are carrying the ex- 
penses of members of the faculty, and the London 
Missionary Society is contributing one missionary. 

The Yale Mission in Changsha was the out- 
growth of a movement among the Student Volun- 
teers of Yale, especially those of the class of 1898. 
Through both the educational work and the hos- 
pital an unmistakable "Yale spirit" has been 
carried through the entire province of Hunan. 
It is difficult to estimate too highly the im- 

[204] 



NATIONALISM AND CHURCH UNITY 

portance of this enterprise, which has long since 
ceased to be an experiment. Under an agree- 
ment with the Hunan Educational Association, a 
board of ten Chinese and ten American members 
join in the general direction of the work. This 
agreement, which is sanctioned by the Peking 
Government, provides that the school and hos- 
pital shall receive annual appropriations of govern- 
ment funds up to $50,000, Mex. Such an arrange- 
ment is unprecedented in China, and would be 
quite impossible were the enterprise under sec- 
tarian control. The founding and development 
of "Ya-li" has been surrounded by romantic, 
pathetic, and picturesque incidents which give the 
work unique traditions and personality. 

Another notable union school recently started 
at Nanking is Ginling College for Girls. Mrs. 
Thurston, widow of J. Lawrence Thurston, who 
went to China to found the Yale Mission at 
Changsha, but whose health failed him before the 
purpose could be accomplished, is the first pres- 
ident of Ginling. While this v new college is more 
closely related to the denominational mission 
boards than is "Ya-li," it is pioneering in a new 
field and setting standards of academic work 
for girls which are unique yet greatly needed 
in China. 

The great barrier to church union in Asia is 
the fact that as yet the native churches are 
usually quite unable to become self-supporting. 
While one is amazed that the mission fields have 
already developed so far toward self-support, it 

[205] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

must be recognized that so long as a mission 
church requires financial assistance it must assent 
to a proportionate amount of supervision from the 
missionaries and that means that any given 
church must remain a denominational church of 
some sort. Unless present indications are mis- 
leading, when the churches in Asia have fully 
reached the goal of self-support they will quietly 
set themselves free from the sectarian spirit of 
the West and take the matter of church unity 
into their own hands. There may then still re- 
main divisions in the Christian forces, but instead 
of being such as have been passed on from Occi- 
dental church history they will be such as different 
Oriental temperaments by nature require. 

Meanwhile, probably the most effective force 
now operating to bring together the divided 
churches of the West is the growing demand for 
Christian unity in the East. 



[206] 



THE BUSINESS SIDE OF FOREIGN 
MISSIONS 



CHAPTER X 

THE BUSINESS SIDE OF FOREIGN 
MISSIONS 

According to the best available figures, a little 
less than $40,000,000 is being spent annually in 
the propagation of Protestant Christianity in non- 
Christian lands and among the backward races. 

The total revenues of all the missionary so- 
cieties and boards of the United States and 
Canada have been increased at the rate of more 
than a million dollars each year since 1910. The 
average increase for the years 1916 and 1917 
was more than $1,700,000 a year. Germany's 
annual pre-war contributions, a little over $2,- 
000,000, are now entirely made up by the in- 
creased contributions of the Allied countries so 
that, in spite of the War, the world's foreign mis- 
sionary work goes on with no net reduction of 
program. In the year 1917 the United States 
and Canada contributed more than half of the 
entire fund for the Protestant foreign missionary 
work of the world. 

Present indications are that the next decade 
will witness such a rapid extension of the work 
as will be quite unprecedented in the history of 
Christianity. The Methodist Episcopal Church 
is now engaged in a campaign which contemplates 
as one of its objects the raising of $8,000,000 a 

[209] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

year for a period of five years for foreign mission- 
ary work, a proposed annual increase of $5,- 
000,000 a year, aside from $1,000,000 which is 
raised each year by its Woman's Foreign Mission- 
ary Society. The Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South, is similarly planning for increasing its 
gifts for five years at the rate of more than $1,- 
500,000 a year. The Presbyterian, Disciples, Con- 
gregationalist, and Baptist denominations have 
under consideration similar special campaigns. 

One of the most remarkable facts with ref- 
erence to the present status of foreign missionary 
work is that the native constituencies on the 
various fields give annually about one dollar for 
every five, four, or even less, which is contributed 
by the churches in the home lands. For example, 
while the various societies of the United States 
and Canada contributed in 1917 $20,405,493, 
these same organizations collected not less than 
$4,740,141 on the fields in which they were work- 
ing. In order to appreciate the full force of this 
comparison, one must remember that a dollar 
in the mission fields represents from five to twenty 
times as much labor as it does in America. Four 
million, seven hundred thousand dollars con- 
tributed in the non-Christian world is easily 
equivalent to fifty million dollars collected in the 
United States or Canada. There could hardly 
be a more sufficient proof than this, that the 
foreign missionary is genuinely welcomed in the 
countries to which he goes. 

The contributions to missionary work collected 
[210] 



THE BUSINESS SIDE OF MISSIONS 

on the fields are constantly increasing. Three or 
four years ago a young contract teacher went 
out to take charge of a large Chinese school 
for boys. In a short time the school had become 
so large that an additional building was necessary. 
He assumed the responsibility of securing a 
building fund of $20,000 from the native con- 
stituency. One of the first men to whom he 
went said, "I am not interested in this project, 
but if you will start a fund for a college to be 
placed by the side of the school, I will give you 
$50,000 and I think I can lead you to a man 
who will give more than that." The friend 
actually subscribed $100,000 and another Chinese 
gentleman put his name down for $100,000 more. 
In a few weeks the young teacher found himself 
carrying around a subscription list which showed 
signatures to the value of nearly $600,000, gold, 
and gifts of land which are conservatively valued 
at more than three times that amount. For the 
new college there is to be a board of directors 
in which the mission appoints the majority of 
the members, and the institution will be dis- 
tinctly a missionary enterprise. 

The Chinese Young Men's Christian Associa- 
tion has for years paid its own expenses. Money 
has been contributed from the United States for 
new property only when the Chinese themselves 
had secured sufficient funds to erect the buildings. 
All current expenses and the salaries of the 
Chinese workers have been carried by the Chinese. 
Only salaries for the secretaries appointed by the 

[211] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

International Committee have been contributed 
from abroad. At least one missionary board is 
proposing to make all contributions for property 
in China contingent upon the amounts contributed 
by the Chinese constituency. 

Because of the large sums of money involved, 
the business side of foreign missions becomes a 
subject of general financial interest. The mis- 
sionary as a business man is an important repre- 
sentative abroad of American business life. The 
many millions which the American missionary 
spends in Asia each year become a factor in 
international credits, and the fact that a great 
deal of this money is spent on American-made 
goods is an item not to be overlooked in inter- 
national trade. It is of immediate interest to 
know in what degree the missionary is a worthy 
representative of American business in his com- 
mercial dealings with peoples whose judgments 
of America are becoming of daily increasing im- 
portance to our commercial and political welfare. 

Mission drafts are sent to the various fields in 
small denominations, because they are imme- 
diately sold and become a commercial commodity 
which may be handled most easily in small sums. 
In Liberia, West Africa, where the state currency 
system is neither very stable nor elastic, it has 
been the custom of one board for many years to 
send its drafts in twenty-five and fifty-cent 
denominations. These pieces of paper are used 
very widely as currency and often circulate for 
several years before they are returned to the 

[212] 



■Bi 

*8 1 


4 

" 4 




nil 



THE MISSIONARY HAS ADDED TO 
HIS NUMBERLESS OTHER TASKS 
THAT OF THE BUSINESS MAN TO 
WHOM VERY LARGE PROPERTY AND 
FINANCIAL INTERESTS ARE IN- 
TRUSTED. THE WORLD IS NOW 
SPENDING NEARLY FORTY MILLION- 
DOLLARS A YEAR ON FOREIGN MIS- 
SIONS. 



THE BUSINESS SIDE OF MISSIONS 

New York office for collection. Not long ago 
a twenty-five-cent bill was returned which had 
been out about thirty years. It is interesting to 
note that during that entire time the negotiable 
value of that paper rested solely on the credit 
of the missionary society. Throughout the mis- 
sion fields the drafts of the mission boards are 
well known in banking circles and among the 
money changers. In such a country as China, 
where the national currency is chaotic, these 
drafts are a much more satisfactory form of 
money than many of the bills which have been 
endorsed by the local banks or by the state. 

When the War broke out, as every one remem- 
bers, foreign exchange was badly demoralized. 
I was in India at the time and recall a certain 
hot Sunday which, but for the mercy of a British 
railway officer at a small station, would have 
been meatless, wheatless, and even entirely 
eatless, because my only negotiable paper hap- 
pened to be an American draft, the like of which 
no one had ever seen before and which everyone 
was therefore afraid to honor. Woe unto the 
man in those days who was away from estab- 
lished bank communications and without the 
universal medium of an English sovereign. 

For some months after the War began the 
missionaries were in much the same precarious 
financial condition as I was for the single day. 
American exchange, which at normal is better 
than 300 rupees for 100 gold dollars, dropped 
down to 247 rupees. Nevertheless, mission bills 

[213] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

had to be honored promptly. The result was 
that those missions which lacked well-fortified 
bank credits or which were under standing orders 
from home to sell their drafts without delay, 
were compelled to turn in their dollars and 
receive in exchange the equivalent of about 
eighty-three cents. 

Dr. Rockwell Clancy, treasurer of one of the 
largest American missions in North India, had 
for several years, all unknowingly, been prepar- 
ing for such a day of reckoning. His maneuvers 
during those first trying months not only illustrate 
some of the duties of a mission treasurer, but also 
reveal something of the skill with which those 
duties may be discharged. 

When Dr. Clancy first took hold of the finances 
for his mission he found many difficulties con- 
fronting him. During an earlier period of mis- 
sionary history the individual missionary had 
been allowed no little freedom in the manage- 
ment of the affairs of his institutions. As a result 
many of the mission properties were heavily 
mortgaged at high rates of interest. Again, al- 
though there were large sums of money flowing 
into the various missions each year, no effort 
had been made to build up a centralized credit 
in which the resources of the group could be 
pooled for the common good. As rapidly as 
possible Dr. Clancy established a strong credit 
with one of the banks. Then he began the 
refunding of mortgages by the simple process 
of going to each creditor, with the money in his 

[214] 



THE BUSINESS SIDE OF MISSIONS 

hand, the day a loan fell due and offering either 
to pay up the mortgage with money he had 
borrowed from the bank or to renew it at a lower 
rate. Eight per cent interest was cut to seven, 
and seven to six and one half. Having been 
around the circle and effected a first reduction, 
he went around again the next year and cut the 
interest another one-half per cent. At length he 
reached rock bottom, but meanwhile he had 
drawn the attention of the banks to his methods 
and won their confidence. In time he was able 
to clear nearly all the mission property and then 
to secure a credit of several hundred thousand 
rupees. 

When the outbreak of the War demoralized 
the exchange rate, Dr. Clancy was able to hold 
his drafts and borrow at the bank to meet his 
regular expenditures. Many other missions were 
compelled to offer their drafts for sale and take 
whatever was offered. In a few months trade 
began to flow in from across the Pacific, the 
demand for and respect for American paper in 
the Indian market increased proportionately, and 
when the exchange reached par Dr. Clancy sold 
his drafts without loss. 

A few months ago I cashed a draft with him 
at the rate of 310. The next week in Bombay I 
offered a similar draft to one of the largest banks 
in India and received only 305. I protested, re- 
marking that Clancy of Delhi had given me the 
better rate. The cashier looked incredulous. The 
next day the manager of the bank invited me 

[215] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

into his private office and put me through some 
questions. Was I sure that Clancy was selling 
his drafts for 310? Yes, he had made an arrange- 
ment with one bank to handle all his drafts at 
that rate for the next three months. The manager 
knew Clancy and thought he knew the Indian 
banks, but the high rate was mystifying. At 
length he confessed to me that the best his bank 
was able to get for these same drafts was 308. 

The volume of mission business in Shanghai 
is so large that it has been found profitable for 
six of the larger organizations, the Baptist For- 
eign Missionary Society, the Boards of Foreign 
Missions of both the Northern and the Southern 
Presbyterian, the Northern and Southern Meth- 
odist Episcopal Churches, and the London Mis- 
sionary Society, to establish joint offices in which 
different departments are created to handle 
specialized kinds of work. While there is no 
actual consolidation such as would be involved 
in the actual pooling of credit, one man takes 
entire charge of the selling of drafts for all the 
boards; another has charge of transportation. 
This office is also being used by some of the 
smaller missions which are not definitely repre- 
sented in the offices. The next step in Shanghai 
would seem to be the establishment of a joint 
purchasing agency for all of the missions. The 
obstacle to be met in such a venture is one which 
frequently crops up as the missionary organiza- 
tions seek to develop further efficiency and econ- 
omy in management: mission work is carried on 

[216] 



THE BUSINESS SIDE OF MISSIONS 

without capital other than property investments. 
The money is contributed from year to year for 
immediate use. It is difficult to create capital 
funds which may be carried over from one year 
to another, and used as seems wise to take ad- 
vantage of the opportunities which arise in the 
transaction of so large a business. 

The distribution of American-made goods 
through the missionaries reaches proportions 
which few people realize. The total foreign staff 
of missionaries from the United States and 
Canada is now over 11,000 and is increasing at 
the rate of 700 a year. The foreign community 
thus created, including wives and children, is 
much larger than that. In addition to the per- 
sonal wants of these people, there are the de- 
mands for equipment for their work. The 
missionary is therefore a buyer of every conceiv- 
able commodity, from needles to musical instru- 
ments and traction engines. One mission board 
a few years ago sent an entire shipload of Oregon 
pine to Shanghai. Hardware for buildings is 
purchased almost entirely in America. Rice-mills 
are sent to China, portable saw-mills to Africa, 
and electrical apparatus goes everywhere. 

Not long ago an American doctor found him- 
self commissioned to depart into one of the 
waste spaces of Korea and build a hospital. 
He was in urgent need of a larger water supply. 
Turning to his mail-order catalogue, which in 
most missionary homes shares the most con- 
venient shelf with the Bible, he found a picture 

[217] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

of a windmill which would exactly answer his 
purpose. He sent in his order, and received the 
windmill just as he might have received a pair 
of shoes or a baby carriage. The instructions 
were so complete that with the aid of native 
assistants he was able to assemble the parts and 
erect his mill without difficulty. Now the natives 
come many miles to see the example of Yankee 
ingenuity which draws and distributes water 
without the aid of human labor. 

Incidentally it may be noted that the increased 
earning power of mission school graduates is 
developing immense sources of new wealth in 
Asia and is increasing the purchasing power of 
the natives to a very marked degree. A mission- 
ary at Penang, on the Malay Peninsula, has 
estimated that the earning capacity of his school 
graduates has increased on the average from 
twenty-five dollars a month to seventy-five. At 
that rate the 8,000 boys who pass through the 
schools of that region in a generation have a 
total increased earning capacity of nearly $5,000,- 
000 a year. When one remembers that every 
educated Chinese boy in that country insists on 
wearing European style clothes and foot-wear, 
and carries not only a watch but also a fountain 
pen, one realizes how very great is the influence of 
the missions in developing new markets in Asia. 

Another interesting phase of foreign missionary 
business is printing and publishing. The mis- 
sionary introduced the modern printing press into 
Asia and Africa to supply the printed matter 

[218] 




THE SPIRIT OF NEW CHINA IS 
NOWHERE MORE IN EVIDENCE THAN 
ON THE NEW ATHLETIC FIELDS 
WHICH WERE FIRST INTRODUCED BY 
THE MISSION SCHOOLS AND WHICH 
ARE NOW BEING MULTIPLIED AMONG 
THE GOVERNMENT INSTITUTIONS. 



THE BUSINESS SIDE OF MISSIONS 

necessary for the propagation of the work. At 
first the chief output was Bibles, tracts, and 
school books. The business has constantly ex- 
panded until it now includes as wide a variety 
of jobs as will be found in many publishing 
houses in the United States. I have in mind one 
such house, in Singapore, which did a business 
last year of $80,000, and showed a profit of over 
$10,000, all of which was used to extend the 
less remunerative evangelistic work. This estab- 
lishment is the largest educational supply house 
in the Straits Settlements, and publishes more 
books each year than all of the other printers 
put together. There are about eighty employes, 
only three of whom are Europeans. Eight or ten 
languages are spoken in the shop and literature 
is published in eight languages. Last year this 
house put out, in addition to its regular run of 
religious literature, three geographies, as well as 
a dictionary of the Malay language. 

Most missions are now finding it more profit- 
able to let out their printing to native establish- 
ments, many of which owe their origin to the 
training offered in the mission press. It is doubt- 
ful whether there will ever be a greater extension 
of the mission printing business, but the work of 
publishing will probably assume much greater 
proportions. There is now no new opportunity 
open to the missionary which promises better 
rewards for the effort than the creation of new 
national literatures. 

The property holdings of the various American 
[219] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

mission boards are probably in excess of $150,- 
000,000. It is utterly impossible to know what 
proportion of this amount represents original in- 
vestment and what ought to be charged as 
appreciation in value. There is no form of real 
estate investment which is more sure to show 
large appreciation than that spent on mission 
property and buildings for missions. Mission 
property, because of its well-kept appearance, 
the quality of the buildings, and the improve- 
ment of sanitation, almost always attracts the 
better class of native property owners, the result 
being the development of a select community 
and large increases in values. The relatively 
low cost of land and of building, and the large 
gifts from the native constituency mean that 
mission properties acquire a value all out of 
proportion to what similar investments at home 
would amount to. 

Mission organizations do not escape the vague 
charge that is some time or other brought against 
most philanthropic societies, that their overhead 
expenses are so large as to eat up most of the 
funds contributed before they actually reach the 
fields. A brief description of the channels through 
which missionary money travels between the 
time when it leaves the contributor's pocket and 
when it is applied to the work will show how 
baseless is the suspicion. 

The constituency from which the money is 
collected is the membership of the denomination. 
That membership may be less than 1,000,000 

[220] 



THE BUSINESS SIDE OF MISSIONS 

people represented by 5,000 congregations, or it 
may be 4,000,000 in 30,000 different churches. 
The average contributions of these constituents 
do not equal a penny a day. The problem of 
collecting that money closely parallels that of 
an insurance company which collects its pre- 
miums in small weekly payments. The overhead 
expenses for such forms of insurance are notori- 
ously high, but in the collection of missionary 
funds there is relatively little expense, because 
every church organization, every Sunday school, 
and every local missionary society acts as a 
collection agency, sending in one hundred cents 
of every dollar to the treasurer. 

The cultivation of this constituency is done 
largely by the officers of the various missionary 
organizations in the local church and by the 
minister. All of this service also is without cost 
to the missionary administration. The only out- 
side help which the local church receives usually 
comes from the missionary who is home on 
furlough once in six or seven years. The expense 
of the missionary's furlough salary is relatively 
small, so small that many missionaries complain 
bitterly about it, and in any case the mission 
boards would be compelled to bear this charge 
whether the missionary were engaged in stim- 
ulating contributions or not. The bulk of the 
expense involved in gathering the money which 
is sent to the fields is in the production of literature 
and other publicity material such as lantern 
slides. The overhead charges for administrative 

[221 ] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

work are almost exclusively for the maintenance 
of a single office, where the complex work of 
collection and distribution of funds, education, 
selection of missionaries, and direction of the 
work in foreign lands is centralized. 

The total overhead expenses of the various 
boards fluctuate from year to year between five 
and ten per cent, the average being about seven. 
In view of the very high quality of ability de- 
manded in missionary administration, both in 
the direction of work on the various fields and 
also in the cultivation of the churches at home, 
it is a question whether the usual overhead 
charges could not be greatly increased, with a 
proportionate increase in the extent and efficiency 
of the entire work. 

One of the most serious defects in present 
missionary organization lies in the custom of 
depending upon the missionary himself to finance 
large parts of his own work, through the cultiva- 
tion of special gifts. As indicated in a previous 
chapter, a missionary is frequently sent to a station 
where the appropriations from home do not 
cover more than one hah or even a third of the 
budget for current expenses. He is expected to 
secure the balance of the money from individuals 
at home whom he may be able to interest. While 
these funds are usually handled by the board 
treasurers and are noted in the annual reports, 
they represent a most costly method of financing 
work. 

At least a half-dozen years are required for a 
[222] 



THE BUSINESS SIDE OF MISSIONS 

missionary to learn the language and accumulate 
sufficient experience to prepare him for maximum 
usefulness in the work. By that time he has 
become a highly trained specialist, whose capabil- 
ities cannot be duplicated except by a similar 
process of selection, training, and experience. 
Many of these men tell me that they are now 
compelled to spend more than half of their time 
in writing letters and in the preparation of re- 
ports for their owm personal constituency. It is 
probably not an overestimate to say that the 
potential efficiency of the present missionary 
force is not over fifty per cent of what it would 
be if all the money for the work could be raised 
without the necessity of the direct personal 
solicitation of the missionary. 

Again, the person who is most successful in 
raising money may not be the most effective 
missionary on the field. In such cases there is 
a great tendency for the money to be apportioned 
not so much with reference to the proportionate 
needs of the entire work as to the location of the 
missionary who secures the gifts. A still more 
serious defect of this condition is that when the 
missionary is at home on furlough he is per- 
mitted practically no time for rest or for such 
further technical study as his special tasks on 
the field may demand. The missionary now has 
to specialize in the educational and medical 
fields to such an extent that it is absolutely 
necessary that he have opportunities for post- 
graduate studies, such as are possible only when 

[223] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

he is on furlough. Thus, in at least three differ- 
ent ways the missionary work abroad is heavily 
taxed in efficiency, because the mission boards 
at home have never effectively organized to take 
over completely the work of securing the in- 
creasing contributions which the growing work 
requires. 

The problem of securing contributions to foreign 
missions may be considered essentially a problem 
in advertising. There is a select constituency 
which in the United States amounts to about 
25,000,000 people, namely, the Protestant church 
membership. The existing ecclesiastical organ- 
izations are in direct contact with this great 
mass of people and are channels of effective 
communication with the membership. This con- 
stituency is already partially sold to the idea of 
foreign missions. It is committed to the work 
to the extent of approximately eighty cents a per- 
son annually. Certainly there are few advertis- 
ing propositions possible today which would start 
with so many conditions in their favor. 

A closer examination of the figures reveals the 
fact that the constituency is cultivated very 
unevenly and that it responds not at all in pro- 
portion to the wealth. The per capita contribu- 
tions to foreign missions vary among the larger 
denominations from ninety cents a member to 
a little less than two dollars and twenty cents. 
In general, the larger the denomination, the 
smaller the per capita contribution. The United 
Presbyterian Church, which has a membership 

[224] 









#&& 


i "''*■* ■"■' '^.iX'^."-.-!^'? 




^gH| 


^* '*' v *^^ 




' wr^^rg^i u"L3 


1 IT 1 " 1 *!! 


■EKv 

1 

• 








'- ' .-iAS 





IT IS ESTIMATED THAT THE RICH 
PLAIN" OF WHICH THESE PADDY 
FIELDS ARE A PART HAS SUPPORTED 
A POPULATION" OF MORE THAN" FIVE 
THOUSAND PEOPLE TO THE SQUARE 
MILE. MORE RECENTLY THERE 

HAVE BEEN LARGE EMIGRATIONS TO 
BORNEO AND MALAYSIA. PRIMITIVE 
INDT'STRIAL METHODS ARE STILL 
ALMOST EXCLUSIVELY EMPLOYED. 



THE BUSINESS SIDE OF MISSIONS 

of only about 160,000, contributes nearly four 
dollars a year for each member. The Presby- 
terians, with 1,500,000 members, give about a 
dollar and a quarter; the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, with nearly 4,000,000, gives only a dollar 
and six cents. It is a matter of common knowl- 
edge that when this $20,000,000 a year which is 
contributed from all the churches is viewed from 
the angle of the individual church, it is found 
that it is practically all being given by less than 
a third of the church members. Two-thirds of 
the Protestant church members give almost 
nothing to foreign missions. 

The development of contributions in this vast 
constituency ought to prove increasingly easy. 
The War, in which so many of the backward 
races are freely and eagerly participating, is 
creating a new sense of friendliness among the 
white race for peoples with a tinted skin. The 
War is also widening the horizons of people who 
have hitherto had only a parochial outlook. 
The coming peace conference will be face to face 
with the question of how to apply the principle 
of self-determination to races which are obviously 
not yet prepared to determine matters for them- 
selves. It ought to be very easy to urge the value 
and the necessity of foreign missions in these 
days which are just ahead of us. President Wil- 
son recently said in a letter to a missionary now 
home on furlough : 

"I entirely agree with you in regard to the 
missionary work. I think it would be a real 

[225] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

misfortune, a misfortune of lasting consequence, 
if the missionary program for the world should 
be interrupted. That the work undertaken should 
be continued and continued ... at its full force, 
seems to me of capital necessity, and I hope 
for one that there may be no slackening or re- 
cession of any sort. I wish that I had time to 
write you as fully as this great subject demands, 
but I have put my whole thought into these few 
sentences and I hope you will feel at liberty to 
use this expression of opinion in any way that 
you think best." 

As a matter of fact, the subject of foreign 
missions has not always been presented in terms 
to which the average church member will re- 
spond. He has not seen in it a world movement 
in which humanitarian purposes are mingled with 
those of self-preservation for civilization itself. 
The facts as to the moral and spiritual impover- 
ishment of the non-Christian races are unchanged 
and must be as potent an argument as ever to 
those who support foreign missions because of 
its evangelistic purpose. On the other hand, 
for those who have dismissed the older mission- 
ary appeal with the answer, uttered or unex- 
pressed, that "their religion is good enough for 
them," there is the challenge of the new world 
which the War is creating, a world of freedom 
and democracy. To quote President Wilson 
again: "Religion is the only force in the world 
that I have ever heard of that does actually 
transform the life; and the proof of the trans- 

[226] 



THE BUSINESS SIDE OF MISSIONS 

formation is to be found all over the world, and 
is multiplied and repeated as Christianity gains 
fresh territory in the heathen world." 

The facts to support this statement are ample 
and easily available. The increase of gifts for 
foreign missionary work is largely a matter of 
setting these facts before the people. The fact 
that contributions in the United States, and 
with some exceptions in England, have not only 
held their own during the period of the War, 
but have actually increased, would seem to indi- 
cate that the Protestant Church has already 
begun to respond to the new appeal. 



[227] 



FOREIGN MISSIONS AND WORLD-WIDE 
DEMOCRACY 



CHAPTER XI 

FOREIGN MISSIONS AND WORLD-WIDE 
DEMOCRACY 

Permit us to introduce Mr. Hoong, the $50,000 
senator from Chung-chung. That is not his 
name and that isn't the place he comes from, but 
it is what he paid for his seat at Peking. 

Mr. Hoong lives in a magnificent house in 
one of the provincial capitals of China. The 
street which leads past it is wide, at least twenty- 
five feet wide, and it is paved with long slippery 
flag stones. Opposite the entrance is a high 
wall, with sides bent in like a barricade. This 
wall is a part of the house architecturally, although 
on the opposite side of the street and necessarily 
detached. The purpose is to thwart the ingress 
of the evil spirits who can fly only in straight 
lines. They are diverted from entering the door 
because they have either already smashed their 
heads, like bats, against the wall, or have had to 
turn around it, and then, when they got under 
way again, found themselves headed up the 
street. Also, that wall opposite the door, in 
direct proportion to its width, height, and dis- 
tance from the house, measures the degree of 
social altitude of the family. 

We pass in turn another sharp corner, also 
arranged for the confusion of the evil spirits, 

[231] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

and find ourselves in the first courtyard. The 
servant takes our cards, bows, arranges them 
like a fan with the most honored card closest 
to him, holds them up over his left shoulder, 
then faces towards us, and we follow him through 
some more courtyards, around some more angular 
spiritual barricades, and at length are shown into 
the reception room. We take seats in lowly 
places at the side; at our elbows are little square 
inlaid tables such as those with which China- 
town restaurants have made us familiar. The 
servants bring steaming perfumed towels with 
which to wipe our faces, and then tea. The 
wives, or perhaps just the women-folks, begin 
to peek in at the side door in the rear, like chil- 
dren from the nursery. Mr. Hoong enters. 

As he approaches he puts his hands together 
in his long sleeves, making a muff, bows many 
times, and draws in his breath continuously 
through his teeth with a sharp hissing sound. 
He is glad to see us. Those seats are not suffi- 
ciently honorable for such distinguished guests. 
Almost before we know it we are escorted to the 
end of the room, to a dais, back of which hang 
some beautifully lettered scrolls and a painting, 
and are seated in magnificently carved chairs 
which would be the envy of the Metropolitan Mu- 
seum. "Servant, bring some better tea for these 
honorable guests from Across-the-Ocean-Land." 

Mr. Hoong speaks no English, but he is par- 
ticularly appreciative of the honor we have done 
him in calling. He is soon to go to Peking and 

[232] 




EVER SINCE THE BOXER UPRIS- 
ING, THE FOREIGN LEGATIONS HAVE 
MAINTAINED SUFFICIENT TROOPS 
WITHIN THE LEGATION QUARTERS 
AT PEKING TO AFFORD TEMPORARY 
DEFENSE, AND AT TIENTSIN VERY 
MUCH LARGER NUMBERS OF TROOPS 
HAVE BEEN ASSEMBLED. THESE ARE 
MOUNTED AMERICAN MARINES GAL- 
LOPING THROUGH A PEKING STREET. 



FOREIGN MISSIONS AND DEMOCRACY 

wishes to confer with us to obtain our advice 
as to what can be done for China. If it is con- 
venient he will call upon us tomorrow at ten 
o'clock. Yes, he is honored that we wish to take a 
picture of his humble self seated there on the dais 
with the other honored guest in his miserable house. 

Thus Senator Hoong pays his tribute to Western 
civilization and to Christianity. I was intro- 
duced by a missionary. He knew nothing of me 
personally. To him I was merely the repre- 
sentative of those vaguely outlined lands in the 
West whence come great new ideas of which 
he knows little. He lives in a city, half a million 
large, which was opened to foreigners only a 
score of years ago; there are not twenty-five 
Europeans in the city even now. In this spirit 
China is opening its doors to the West, particularly 
to Americans. The Chinese are predisposed to 
accept and honor every American as an ambassa- 
dor. They come to him in representative capac- 
ities. Any American who goes to China today, 
in business, as a tourist, or as a missionary, 
whether his talents be small or great, finds that 
his immediate world is increased a hundred fold. 
He is himself, plus all that Uncle Sam is in gen- 
erosity, justice, and character. 

Senator Hoong called as agreed, the following 
morning, bringing with him two tins of tea, 
bound together with paper string and decorated 
with roses. The bowing, hissing, and other 
formalities finished, I began to make compli- 
ments and ask questions. 

[233] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

"It is a very distinguished honor you do me, 
to make this call." The senator made another 
muff, hissed and bowed three times. 

"You are about to undertake grave respon- 
sibilities in Peking," I suggested. 

More hissing and bowing. 

"What about the machinery of elections?" I 
asked. "How is a senator elected in China?" 

"By the provincial assembly," he explained. 
"Each senator is elected for a term of six years. 
There are three classes, so that one-third of 
the membership of the Senate is changed each 
two years. The provincial assembly is made 
up of four hundred representatives who have 
been elected directly by the citizens. Each 
citizen must possess $5,000 as a qualification for 
voting. In some districts forty voters elect a 
representative to the provincial assembly." 

"Is there no demand for the extension of this 
rather limited electorate?" I asked. "How about 
the $2,000 man?" 

"Oh, that matter of a voter's qualifications is 
all left to the election board. The $5,000 limit 
is not always enforced. The officials use their 
discretion." Shades of Tammany! 

Would we not do him the honor to come with 
him to the best restaurant in town and have a 
feast? — some other callers, meanwhile, having 
arrived. Of course, we would accept with pleasure. 
We got under way, the senator bringing up in 
the rear with the missionary. 

"See that man in the ricksha?" called the 
[234] 



FOREIGN MISSIONS AND DEMOCRACY 

missionary to me as we strolled along. "He is 
the head of the electric lighting plant." 

"He doesn't look the part. Does he know 
anything about electricity?" 

"Not the slightest," he replied. "Neither does 
his first assistant, nor his second assistant, nor 
his third. Probably the tenth man down the 
ladder does the work. America has nothing on 
us when it comes to government jobs." This is 
a glimpse of China as it is today. 

I pass over the details of the feast. The menu 
contained no sea-slugs and no pig's stomach. 
In addition, each guest confined himself fairly 
well to that arc of the central dish which was 
tangent to his side of the table. We had some 
more talk about the condition of China. 

"Is China on the up or down grade?" I 
asked. 

"Conditions are very bad," they all agreed. 

This was just before the outbreak of the recent 
revolution. The military were becoming oppres- 
sive. The soldiers, men from other provinces, 
recruited from the lowest classes, were terrorizing 
the civilians. Only the day before some of them 
had assaulted some women teachers just outside 
the city wall. 

"How, then, is China going to pull out of 
this hole?" I asked. 

"She must borrow some more money," replied 
the Senator. "Can you not help China to borrow 
some more money from America?" 

"But th&t dpe§ not seem to reach the heart 
[835] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

of your difficulties," I suggested. "What about 
the character of your government?" 

There was a moment of silence. Then one of 
the guests spoke up, very earnestly, "There is 
no hope for China until we are able to elect a 
few more honest officials like Mr. Hoong." 

And Senator Hoong paid $50,000 for his seat. 
Meanwhile, the revolution came and went and 
there was no longer even a Senate for Mr. Hoong 
to sit in. 

This story illuminates the subject of democracy 
in Asia. That the scene happens to be China is 
incidental. One might have experiences from 
which similar conclusions can be drawn almost 
anywhere in the East. 

The events of the last few years have been 
teaching us that democracy is not safe at any 
single point around the world until it is safe at 
every point. So long as any one unit is out of 
step, the entire league of nations is imperiled. 
We must look far beyond the present conflict 
to weigh the full measure of this fact. Suppose, 
for the moment, that what we so much desire 
has already been accomplished: assume that the 
War has been won, and the peace settlements 
determined which will, so far as is possible, safe- 
guard the world from a recurrence of so great 
a calamity. Will the world then be safe for 
democracy? 

One has but to glance at the map to see that 
fully two-thirds of the earth's surface, and an 
equal proportion of the population, lie quite 

[236] 



FOREIGN MISSIONS AND DEMOCRACY 

outside the primary concerns of the European 
conflict. We may be fully resolved to enforce 
a settlement which will protect the weak and 
backward nations and races from aggression, 
but we must realize that no victory of arms can 
protect this two-thirds of the world from its 
internal weakness and disorder. 

We must go back to the word with which 
this book began: Democracy is not merely a catch- 
word of the War; it has become the watchword of 
the world. The War has accentuated the ideal 
and accelerated its growth; but long before the War 
began, the ideal had thrust down its roots in many 
soils where republican institutions were plants 
of exotic growth. Portugal and China became 
nominally republics; Mexico was in an uproar; 
the Philippines and Java were restless; the blacks 
of South Africa were threatening to debate the 
question of whether they must give way to a 
"white man's country"; and many a South 
American government tottered on a foundation 
that claimed the name, and yet lacked the con- 
tent of liberty, equality, and brotherhood. 

Merely to review the world's unrest of the 
last decade is to have revealed how great is the 
task to which the world has roused itself. It 
is evident that one must look elsewhere than to 
the camps and courts of Europe for the leader- 
ship, methods, and resources to make the world 
safe for democracy. One may reach this con- 
clusion without underestimating the stakes of 
the present conflict, and without undervaluing 

[237] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

the quality of the heroism which it has en- 
listed. 

If the world is to become safe for democracy, 
every nation must not only be safeguarded from 
invasion and spoliation, but also must be made 
strong enough internally to maintain for itself 
justice and liberty. Until that day shall come 
in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, as well as in 
many parts of Europe, the world cannot be safe. 
/ One of the great movements with which the 
statesmen will have to reckon immediately after 
the close of the War is the democratic drift of 
the Orient. The American policy in the Philip- 
pines, followed by the proclamation of Allied 
principles to fight for the protection of weak 
nations, has stimulated the imaginations and 
ambitions of the Asiatic races mightily, y 

Not long ago a delegation of Dutch officials 
visited the Philippines. They were lavishly 
entertained, and one day went to see that great 
American institution, a baseball game. The 
contestants were some American soldiers and a 
nine drawn from the native constabulary. It 
happened that the latter won, whereupon the 
soldiers gave the Filipinos a cheer. 

"Do Americans take off their hats to Filipinos 
and cheer them?" asked the astonished visitors. 

"Certainly, when they win; why not?" was 
the reply. 

Shortly after that, the Dutch Government 
made an additional appropriation of $5,000,000 
for popular education in Java. 

[238] 




MANUEL QUEZON, FIRST PRESI- 
DENT OF THE FILIPINO SENATE IN 
THE GOVERNMENT OF ONE OF THE 
FILIPINO PROVINCES. QUEZON IS 
GENERALLY REGARDED AS THE MOST 
INFLUENTIAL FILIPINO AS WELL AS 
ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR. THE 
ELEVATION OF SUCH MEN TO HIGH 
OFFICE UNDER A REPUBLICAN SYS- 
TEM OF GOVERNMENT HAS GREATLY 
STIMULATED THE DEMOCRATIC MOVE- 
MENT IN ASIA. 



FOREIGN MISSIONS AND DEMOCRACY 

The entrance of the United States into the 
War was hailed with jubilation. The leaders in 
India and China feel that the Americans will 
be their steadfast friends in the coming peace 
conferences, holding out for the application to 
Asia as well as to Europe of the doctrine of the 
rights of weak nations. China seeks protection 
from aggression; she wishes to be permitted to 
manage her own affairs. India is insistently de- 
manding that she be granted great extensions 
in the privileges of autonomy, and these demands 
are already being met in a spirit of great gen- 
erosity by the British Government. There is 
little doubt that the Netherlands East Indies 
will also share in the benefits of a democratic 
peace. 

The entire Orient is beginning to stir with self- 
consciousness. The Pan-Asia Movement, though 
small, perhaps too small to be worthy of serious 
attention at present, is indicative of a new life 
and vitality that hitherto have been quite un- 
known in Asia outside of Japan. After the War 
is won, we shall have to solve the other prob- 
lem of conserving the results of the victory to 
those neglected and restless areas of the East. 

One has not to look farther than to our neigh- 
bor, Mexico, to see how the weakness of a weak 
nation may threaten the well-being, and prac- 
tically the peace, of even her strongest neighbor. 
China affords another illustration. Japan claims, 
and with justice, that the disorganization of 
China is a menace to the security of her Empire. 

[239] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

She does not, perhaps, realize so clearly that the 
instability of the Chinese Republic is a very 
disturbing factor in the American experiment in 
the Philippines. The United States has dared 
to lift a small, weak, and neglected race of people 
almost to the point of self-government. The 
experiment gives promise of success, but that 
success is dependent, not only on the peace of 
the Orient, but also on the safety of the Orient 
for democracy. 

Let us turn to India. The movement for 
Home Rule is no slight affair. The British 
Government is recognizing its sweep and force 
by changes in administrative policies that are 
almost revolutionary. India is demanding full 
autonomy in the management of internal affairs. 
She has asked that four-fifths of the members of 
the provincial legislative councils, and an equal 
part of the Imperial Council, shall be elective. 
But India, neither internally nor externally, is 
safe for democracy. She has no unity of language, 
race, or religion; her social system is aristocratic 
and divisive. Looking forward into the next 
century, one must see that the destiny of India 
is bound up with the settlement of the entire 
Oriental question. England must keep her hand 
on India, just as we must watch over the Philip- 
pines, until such a time as the Orient becomes 
safe for weak races, until the weakness to which 
republican governments are liable will not expose 
her to the aggressions of some covetous and 
efficient neighbor; or, until India herself has been 

[240] 



FOREIGN MISSIONS AND DEMOCRACY 

able to underlay her republican institutions 
with substantial foundations. 

Since the War began, I have visited every 
continent save one; I have been within sound 
of the guns on each side of the firing line in Europe; 
I was in Peking when the waves of the newest 
revolution broke in China. It is my observation 
that the War has accentuated pride of race, 
desire for complete self-government, and the 
establishment of democratic institutions around 
the world. The demands which have been 
made upon the backward races and the non- 
Christian nations to join in the struggle, have 
greatly exalted these peoples in their own estima- 
tion and in the regard of the whole world. This 
very fact increases the difficulty of the problem 
which we shall have to face in the very near 
future. There is not a non-Christian nation to- 
day in which democracy is safe; and there are 
several so-called Christian nations, in which the 
form of Christianity has been so constrained and 
perverted that democracy is hardly secure. 

Without wishing in any way to displace the 
soldier in the affection and loyal support of all 
lovers of justice and right, I would place beside 
him the foreign missionary as equally worthy of 
the confidence and support of those who are 
truly determined to safeguard the democracy 
of the world. 

I quite realize that the foreign missionary has 
never won his way to popular enthusiasm. He 
has been dismissed as a visionary and a bother. 

[241 ] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

His work has seemed to many both unnecessary 
and prosaic. Even the Church, which sent him 
to his task and maintained him there, has never, 
perhaps, taken him quite so seriously as she 
now takes her other sons who go to France. 
The Church at large has known little more than 
the general public of what the foreign missionary 
is really doing. To many, his task has seemed 
like a rather hopeless race with death to save a 
few thousand souls from hell. Indeed, the 
missionary himself, lost in the immediate duty, 
has not always been able to measure the full 
circle of his influence. It is only within the last 
few years that the dimensions of the work of 
Christianizing the world have come to appear 
in their full proportions. 

And yet it is true, to a very large degree, that 
the missionary has been the carrier of the dem- 
ocratic ideal to the four corners of the earth. 
He has preceded the explorer and the trader 
in opening up the highways of commerce. It 
was through the missionary, and those who came 
in his train, that the vague forces, which taken 
together we call Western civilization, began to 
impinge upon the barriers erected by backward 
races. Others in more recent years have carried 
in the trade and the devices of civilization, but 
it has been left largely to the missionary to 
carry the idealism out of which civilization itself 
has come. 

The Bible has gone out to the ends of the 
earth. None of us stopped for the moment to 

[242] 



FOREIGN MISSIONS AND DEMOCRACY 

remember the political, economic, and social 
consequences that have always followed the 
circulation of the Bible. Now we find the back- 
ward races in commotion. They follow the open 
Bible, as harvest follows seedtime. 

The missionary first asks for religious liberty, 
and then proclaims the inclusive and sweeping 
doctrines of the fatherhood of God and the 
brotherhood of man. He establishes schools 
which not only teach the elementary branches, 
but set the example of equality by opening their 
doors to the poorest and most oppressed. The 
missionary hospital places a new value on the 
human body and sets standards for the con- 
servation of life. It teaches charity and mercy. 
Through these channels go out the very influences 
which create the ideals of brotherhood and 
democracy. 

The missionary does not force conflicts with 
existing laws. He appeals to something far 
more fundamental and persuasive — to public 
opinion; and, just in proportion as he gains the 
support of public opinion, the old order begins 
to crumble. 

When the missionary makes a convert, he 
makes a radical. With all the tact he possesses, 
and he usually has a good deal, he says in effect: 
The religion of your father and mother was wrong. 
When the convert accepts baptism he must, as 
it always has been, forsake his father and his 
mother. He must also repudiate the entire 
social system which has been the meat and 

[243] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

drink of his family, clan, nation, and race. What 
wonder, then, that the Christian convert is a 
man with capacities for radical thought and 
action? 

The young men and women then enter the 
missionary school, and there fashion and sharpen 
the weapons that become their superior equip- 
ment for the spreading of the new ideas they 
have acquired. The student learns to care 
properly for his body, thus finding an effective 
instrument to support his new convictions. His 
mind is trained and disciplined, so that he goes 
back to his people better able than they to think 
clearly, and to reach sound conclusions. He 
carries with him a vast fund of idealism drawn 
;rom all the deposits of a more efficient civiliza- 
tion. His very presence and superior accom- 
plishments are sources of worthy discontent 
among his less-favored brothers. 

"Every church in Asia," said Bishop W. S. 
Lewis of the Methodist Episcopal missions the 
other day, "is a miniature republic. The only 
trial by jury which the Chinese know, is that 
which is practiced in the discipline of the Church." 

The missionary is, without doubt, the chief 
cause of the fact that America has come to a 
place of such influence among the Asiatics. Per- 
haps it is partly because of the democratic nature 
of that influence, that Japan views with occasional 
alarm the approach of the United States to 
Eastern Asia. 

It is evident that the missionary commands 
[244] 



FOREIGN MISSIONS AND DEMOCRACY 

the approach to the backward races. The Bishop 
of Calcutta said to me not long ago, when we 
were discussing the unrest in India: "For thirty 
years I taught Green's English History to stu- 
dents in a mission college. I always said to 
myself, after finishing the course, 'If these boys 
don't appropriate some of these ideals, it will 
not be my fault.' " Today India is beginning 
to be vibrant with the ideals, the development 
of which Professor Green recorded. 

Equally evident is the fact, that in the future 
the missionary must carry forward the work to 
make these ideals safe for the peoples who have 
adopted them. Until they are safe in Asia, they 
will not be secure in Europe or in America, for 
this modern globe is each year becoming smaller. 

From the beginning most missionaries have 
realized that their work looked two ways. They 
were engaged in an effort to bring the individual 
soul to an experience of personal religion. They 
have also been laying the foundations of a new 
social order, remaking a civilization, or even 
building a new one. Certainly men like Living- 
stone and Carey saw this. 

However, early missionary work had, per- 
force, to confine itself to the intensive cultivation 
of a very few people. Usually the first converts 
were drawn from the servant, outcaste, and 
coolie classes, or from other low social orders. 
The upper strata, the literati, the leaders of 
public opinion, the men well versed in their 
own native culture, were not attracted. As the 

[245] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

lower and oppressed classes responded more and 
more to the Gospel, the upper classes removed 
themselves farther and farther from it. It was 
not their habit to join in with the coolie and 
call him "Brother." The printing press was 
employed to print tracts, Scripture portions, and 
Bibles; the hospital was introduced to draw a 
crowd; and the school was a card of introduction 
to the home, or a hothouse for intensive spiritual 
cultivation. The less inclusive definitions of the 
doctrine of salvation inclined everyone to measure 
the progress of the work solely by the number 
of baptisms. When attention was drawn to the 
fact that among the converts not many wise 
and not many mighty were called, comfort was 
found in the fact that Christianity has always 
first prospered among the lowly. 

The day of those humble beginnings is past. 
Christianity is now being carried along on two 
tides: on the one side, there are masses of people 
from the lower classes seeking for the Gospel; 
and, on the other, there are increasing numbers 
of the educated and influential turning to it. 

The missionary purpose has not changed, but 
it has extended itself. It now includes tens of 
thousands of people where formerly it reached 
only to tens. It embraces work among all classes 
instead of being limited to a single group. In 
addition, it now includes responsibilities for 
social leadership, of which none of the pioneers 
could have even dreamed. 

The work of evangelism still goes on with 
[246] 



FOREIGN MISSIONS AND DEMOCRACY 

daily marked acceleration. There are several 
denominations now at work in Asia, any one 
of which baptizes in a single year more converts 
probably than there were Christians at the 
time of the death of the Apostle Paul. Among 
these converts the outcastes and lower classes 
are still largely in the majority. 

A notable illustration of this fact is seen in 
the mass movements of India. These move- 
ments represent, excepting possibly those of 
Russia, the greatest social phenomenon of the 
century. They look toward real democracy. 
Hinduism, the social structure of more than 
200,000,000 people, is, to borrow a figure of 
speech of Bishop W. F. Oldham, a pyramid. 
At the top are the few Brahmins; at the bottom 
are forty or fifty million outcastes. They live 
by themselves in the least desirable part of the 
village, doing the most menial work; they are 
regarded by the caste people as literally the 
scum of the earth, and are treated as such. Their 
lot is more pitiable than that of slaves. Large 
portions of this Hindu outcaste population are 
fairly stampeding toward Christianity, coming to 
the missionary in groups, even by villages, to 
seek baptism. It would probably not be a very 
difficult matter, if it were wise, to baptize in the 
near future five, perhaps ten million outcastes. 
They are the foundation of Hinduism. They 
carry the load. When they move out from under, 
the entire social structure must topple. 

The Bishop of Madras, who has been in India 
[247] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

thirty years and who has made a careful study 
of the subject, said to me: 

"The outcastes, considered as material on 
which to work, are not inferior to the Brahmins. 
When the two classes are received into the same 
school and given equal opportunities, they do 
equally well. In fact, one cannot tell them apart 
after a few years of education. The educated 
outcaste can enter government service or the 
Church, and hold his own with any one. There 
is no reason why the Church cannot make con- 
verts among the outcastes at the rate of a million 
a year. That means, that, in forty or fifty years, 
the entire outcaste population will be Christian. 
India would then have a Christian population 
nearly as large as the present Mohammedan 
section, but far stronger and more influential." 

But missions have not merely to deal with out- 
caste Hindus. They have also to reckon with 
other and quite different people. 

I searched out the leaders of Mohammedanism 
in India. At Lucknow I had an interview with 
the Secretary of the All-India Moslem League, 
a political organization now seeking to lead the 
Mohammedans to unite with the Hindus. 

"What do the Moslems propose to do for India 
in the matter of religion?" I asked. 

He looked at me a moment, smiled a little, 
and said: "We Mohammedans cannot close our 
eyes to the fact that Islam is a decaying and 
diminishing institution." 

At Aligarh, the city of the great Mohammedan 
[848] 




THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT FINDS 
IT WISE TO ESTABLISH A QUARAN- 
TINE FOR ALL RETURNING EMI- 
GRANTS, WHERE EVERYONE IS CARE- 
FULLY SCRUTINIZED FOR POSSIBLE 
DISLOYALTY. DURING THE WAR 

MANILA HAS BEEN A POPULAR RE- 
SORT FOR THOSE WHO HAVE PLOTTED 
TO STIR UP REVOLUTION IN INDIA. 



FOREIGN MISSIONS AND DEMOCRACY 

university of India, I went to the leading pro- 
fessors and asked, "How do you state your 
personal religious faith? What have you, as a 
Mussulman, to offer to India?" 

Their replies were almost uniformly the same: 
"We are not religious men. Islam is not a vital 
spiritual force in India, and never will be." 
These men are all of them cultured and well 
educated; many of them are graduates of English 
universities. They are practically without re- 
ligious faith; and, by their own statements, their 
attachment to Islam is by the slenderest of 
threads. It is largely fraternal. 

In Japan I said to a prominent Christian lay- 
man in whom the pride of race and sense of 
nationalism run strong: "Do you need any more 
American missionaries in Japan?" I expected 
him to assert his national pride, and assure me 
that Japanese Christianity is quite prepared to 
assume the responsibility for completing the 
evangelization of the Empire. To my surprise, 
he replied: 

"Yes, we do need American missionaries. 
We need them for work among our educated and 
wealthy classes. Our ministers often lack the 
social qualities and the financial support which 
would make it possible for them to meet these 
classes on a footing of social equality." 

One of the most vigorous manifestations of 
Christianity in Japan today is that men of great 
national influence and leadership are studying the 
Bible and the Christian faith. Hardly a month 

[249] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

passes without the announcement that some 
conspicuous Japanese leader has been baptized. 

The missionary formerly worked months, and 
even long years, for a single convert, and, when 
he had secured him, had only a single illiterate 
man from the lower classes. Now he has access- 
ible, on the one hand, millions of lower class 
people; and, on the other, an increasing number 
of men and women who are already the great 
leaders among their countrymen. The present 
mission staff and equipment is adapted largely 
for dealing with the man of the lower classes, 
and for dealing with him individually. Slowly 
the skeleton organization has been expanded 
and partially filled out; but no church has yet 
grasped these larger opportunities for personal 
evangelism, which the last few years and decades 
have brought. 

The missionary has been trained and developed 
primarily for the older work — that among the 
lower classes. As the opportunity has grown, 
schools, hospitals, and publishing houses have 
been added — these also being designed to care 
for work already under way. Now, with few 
exceptions, the missionaries on the field are tied 
down to the direction of these institutions. 
They must supervise the churches and the native 
pastors; run the hospital; manage the printing 
press; keep accounts; and, in the greater pro- 
portion of fields, cultivate an American con- 
stituency to meet their increasing needs for more 
money. Many missionaries are now compelled, 

[250] 



FOREIGN MISSIONS AND DEMOCRACY 

aside from their own salaries, to finance the 
greater part of their work. There is a man in 
India whose mission expenses run from 1,200 to 
1,500 rupees a month. He receives 300 by appro- 
priation; the remainder he must raise as best 
he can. More extraordinary still, is the fact 
that he actually raises it. 

I know of relatively few missionaries who are 
prepared and free to undertake the new work 
among the upper classes. There is an urgent 
need in the Orient for highly trained and cul- 
tured men to meet on common ground the grad- 
uate of Oxford or Cambridge, the graduate and 
Doctor of Philosophy from Yale or Columbia. 
These men, fresh from their studies, often have 
better and more up-to-date libraries than the 
missionary could afford to possess. One cannot 
fairly expect these men to join enthusiastically 
in the work of a church where practically all the 
other members are barely literate. Nor are 
such converts likely to enjoy the ministrations 
of a preacher with less than a high school edu- 
cation. 

The missionary task is so little finished that 
its present state is precarious. The first impact 
of Christianity, as well as of Western civilization, 
is more destructive than constructive. Its in- 
direct and more extended influence is to destroy 
or weaken old sanctions before it can create 
new ones. In the wake of the missionary comes 
a flood of influences that tend to demoralize. 
To pry loose from age-long conservatism these 

[251] 



THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA 

peoples of Asia, and then to leave them without 
adequate leadership before they are able to care 
for themselves, would be nothing less than 
perfidy. To relax for one moment the steadying, 
guiding, inspiring leadership of Christian mis- 
sions in Asia, while Eastern civilization is in 
chaos, would be only to permit the present chaos 
to extend itself. The energetic prosecution of 
the foreign missionary enterprise is a duty as 
much as is the prosecution of the War. 

The world cannot exist half slave and half 
free, even when the slavery is but the bondage 
of illiteracy, ignorance, and superstition. We 
embarked upon a war to safeguard democracy. 
By the same logic are we impelled to continue 
the task, both now and after the War be over, 
of underwriting a world democracy with a world 
Christianity. There is at hand no other proposal 
by which the results of the War may be per- 
manently conserved to the backward races. 



[252] 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Oct. 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAP^R P? ^FRVATION 
111 Thomson Park Dove 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



